Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

In this debate today we can hear that, as a nation, we're in need of well-targeted measures to address serious crime and maintain our national security. Unfortunately, as Labor senators have been outlining to this place, the bill before us, the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2020, does not do that. It is far from doing that. It is not well targeted; it does not address the issue of serious crime at our ports and airports. The fact that we've got a quarter of a million workers who have the qualifications required to do this work, ASIC or MSIC cards, really highlights that these kinds of measures do need to be well targeted. We don't want to see legislation before this place that, as this bill does, makes it harder for Australian workers in our ports and airports to get the checks they need to do their job.

Yet again we have from this government an announcement, a headline: 'Let's improve security at our ports and airports.' But this is far from the truth. In fact, this bill weakens our border security by not addressing the issue of foreign crew on ships operating on Australian domestic routes. Indeed, as my colleagues have outlined, it means bureaucratic delays and inconsistencies for Australian workers. The government should acknowledge that these kinds of bureaucratic delays and inconsistencies are actually where security risks can manifest, but in this legislation we have an avoidance of those truthful facts.

For us to be able to control our borders and maintain national security, foreign aviation and maritime workers have got to be subject to robust background checking. It's the responsibility of the federal government to take sensible measures to deter and detect perpetrators who want to exploit loopholes in air and sea transport and travel to bring contraband, including drugs and weapons, into Australia or to take such contraband out. But the fact of the matter is that this government has little appreciation for the reality of this. While they let exploited workers and flags of convenience come in and out of our shores, they show little appreciation of the fact that exploited labour on those ships can be far more vulnerable to demands to smuggle contraband in and out of Australia.

If you are not being paid fair wages, if you are of uncertain immigration status in Australia or in the other routes that you are travelling, you can be very vulnerable to such manipulation. Indeed, organisations like the ITF, which represent transport workers right around the world, are very familiar with the vulnerabilities that workers face in being exploited. For example, there are instances right around the world where national governments and corporations, in nations that I won't name now, are so anti-union that they leave their workers on these ships open to manifest exploitation.

In Australia the aviation security identification card and the maritime security identification are an important part of keeping our aviation, maritime and offshore oil and gas sectors free from interference and terrorism. They are important benchmarks in safety and security standards in all of these sites and they are of critical importance. We also want to see foreign workers being held to a standard of background checks to ensure they are not a threat to aviation or maritime security. So I ask the government: why, today in this place and in this bill, do you want to make it easier for foreign workers than Australian workers to be accredited to work in these Australian conditions?

It is quite telling the number of times that flag-of-convenience ships around the world have been found to be engaging in criminal and terrorist activity. Why is this the case? A great deal of the world's shipping, including shipping that takes place here in Australia, where foreign goods are imported or exported from our ports, takes place under flags of convenience. This is where everything from safety to emissions standards, to environmental standards and labour standards, aren't regulated by a sovereign nation with attention to this detail but, rather, are conveniently flagged in the equivalent of a tax haven that just does it for the convenience of the operator. And the evidence shows that these flag-of-convenience ships, which are much less regulated, have been found to be active in criminal and terrorist activity. Yet this government seeks to continue to make it easier for these ships to operate in Australia, not harder, as this legislation shows.

Globally the consequences of having flag-of-convenience ships are well known. They do things like undercut the labour standards of sovereign shipping capabilities. That's very much the case here in Australia. For example, we've seen flag-of-convenience ships operating off our shores, even from one domestic Australian port through to another, displacing Australian shipping. Also, in that race to the bottom, they're displacing Australian on-land transport routes such as rail and road. It's globally well known that that's the kind of stuff that occurs in this race to the bottom that you see here, perpetuated by legislation like this. Australian workers have been subject to a three-month wait; it could be up to a three-month wait for their MSIC, but do you know what? People as part of a foreign crew can get a maritime crew visa and come into Australia with as little as 24 hours notice, and that is with no MSIC required at all. Why should there be such a difference? Well, I don't think that there should be. Why is this government making it harder for Australians to do their jobs? They put in their forms to get these clearances, and yet it can take months for them to get their clearances to do this work.

I can't help but think sometimes that this government hates Australian workers, or, at least, it knows no bounds in its race to the bottom in labour standards, in immigration standards, in wages and conditions, which allow Australians to be undercut over and over again. What are the consequences of this? Think about it in the context of having a sovereign shipping capacity where we can move goods from one port to another under a sovereign shipping supply chain. What are the consequences of our capacity to ship goods from one port to another totally reliant on flag-of-convenience and foreign ships? What does that mean for our sovereign capability in a time of international crisis or disruption or war? It's not good news. So, when you make it harder for Australian workers to do their jobs, be that by allowing flag-of-convenience ships in our waters and offering an unlevel playing field in terms of regulation, this is the source of losing our sovereign capability as a nation, sovereign capability that we need to make sure is protected in times of trouble.

When the government says that this bill is about serious crime and not about making it harder for Australian workers to earn money for their families, I would have thought that the government would have defined serious crime as those looking to bring contraband into or out of Australia. But, sadly, this bill does not even define what serious crime is. Under this bill, we would see Australian workers with minor criminal convictions exposed to bureaucratic nightmares that make it harder for them to make money for their families, harder for them to take that money home to their families. As I said at the outset, when you're going to expose a quarter of a million workers to these kinds of questions, it goes to show how inept this government is at actually targeting organised and serious crime. I'll give you the example, as I'm sure others have, of Brendan McKeen's conviction for getting into a pub fight some 31 years ago. When someone like Brendan needs to renew his card, he faces a 90-day wait and he's left in the position of not being sure whether that card will arrive in time for his next shift. Is it any wonder that flag-of-convenience shipping finds it easy to compete against Australian regulated standards when this is the case?

I ask the government: why is this costing Australian workers more than it's costing foreign workers? We know flag-of-convenience vessels are rife with exploitation. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said, in 2017, that the ownership and financial arrangements of these vessels is complex. They also admitted that it makes them attractive for use in illegal activity, including by organised crime or terrorist groups. And I have to say, I've seen many cases of visa exploitation taking place as well. If they've got bosses who make it difficult for them to get home to see their family or if they've got bosses who underpay them, it absolutely leaves many maritime crew members open to needing to answer their master's call to do whatever illegal activity they're asked to undertake, rather than being able to stick to the rules here in Australia, with which they might be unfamiliar.

The department admitted that these ships are targets for exploitation of natural resources, illegal activity, people smuggling and facilitating prohibited imports or exports. Labor seeks to amend this legislation. I'm sure you've heard from others about what our intentions are in terms of looking at the scope of the offences, review and other issues. We recognise that national security is important, but we also want this government to recognise that workers being able to do their jobs is of critical importance. That is what will keep our nation safe. And this bill does nothing to address any of these important issues. Labor proposes an alternative bill that will. (Time expired)