Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I do appreciate the opportunity to put forward my case, because I too sit there and I know that these speeches can be far-ranging.

I'm going to go back to where I was before I was interrupted in my train of thought—and I'm happy to go back to 15 minutes! There is the challenge. Bring it forth. Tell me I've got it wrong. You can't have three deaths on one ship and a confessed and convicted gun-runner and money-launderer and say that we are absolutely on top of this. I'll tell you what we're on top of. We're on top of making it as hard as possible, for the right reasons, to get an MSIC or an ASIC—absolutely no problem. But now I'm only just getting started. So why is it different for our Aussie seafarers? Why can Rio Tinto up there in the Top End have eight ships and four of the ships have Aussie crew and four of the ships have foreign crew? The Aussies have to jump through hoops and do backflips and all sorts of stuff. That's fine, but the foreign seafarers don't. Where is it in the Australian psyche that we'll make it as hard as possible for Australians to work but as easy as possible for poor, exploited foreign workers?

Now I want to come back to a few of my other concerns. When can someone start assisting me on the issue of guilt by association? Think about this. If your best mate is a bikie and you're hanging out with the bikie every week, we've got a right to be seriously concerned. But what happens to a 55-year-old wharfie whose 23-year-old son joins an outlaw motorcycle gang? The father can't stop him. The son is of mature age. He can do whatever he likes. Where do those guys sit with their MSIC? (Time expired)