Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

First, I want to lend my support to the comments made by Senator Kristina Keneally. But I also want to go to what the government should be considering with regard to the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2020. The government pretends to be tough on borders and tough on crime, when in reality it's left a huge gaping hole in our national ports. Foreign seafarers are excluded entirely from security measures in this bill. Australians working at ports are forced to wait up to three months just to renew their maritime security identification card. But the crew of foreign vessels that use flag-of-convenience registration to flagrantly avoid tax and regulations can waltz into Australia with as little as 24 hours notice. That's correct: three months for checks for an Australian port worker; 24 hours for a foreign crew member on a ship registered in Liberia, Panama or Russia. How can the AFP or our intelligence agencies do a comprehensive background check on the entire crews of foreign vessels in 24 hours? As the then Department of Immigration and Border Protection told the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport in 2017:

There are features of FOC registration, regulation and practice that organised crime syndicates or terrorists may seek to exploit.

… … …

Reduced transparency or secrecy surrounding complex financial and ownership arrangements are factors that can make FOC ships—

flag-of-convenience ships—

more attractive for use in illegal activity including by organised crime or terrorist groups.

This means that the FOC ships may be used in a range of illegal activities, including illegal exploitation of natural resources, illegal activity in protected areas, people smuggling, and facilitating prohibited imports or exports.

That quote is the government's own bureaucrats saying four years ago that foreign vessels are prime targets for organised crime and terrorist groups.

Foreign vessels are the express lane for trafficking people and people smugglers, and the Morrison government is keeping that express lane wide open. The Morrison government is also keeping that lane wide open for terrorists. The world was horrified by the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on 4 August last year. The blast caused 207 deaths, over 7,500 injuries and US$15 billion in property damage. It was one of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts in human history and was felt and heard hundreds of kilometres away. Lebanon's interior minister said the blast was a store of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate blowing up. The ammonium nitrate had been seized from a Russian ship, the MV Rhosus. In Australia, in 2020 alone, 18 voyages of foreign flagged ships carried that same material, ammonium nitrate, on domestic routes. They were mostly long voyages between Western Australia and our east coast ports. Those ships carried up to 6,500 tonnes of ammonium nitrate per voyage, more than double the volume which led to the tragedy of Beirut, and the foreign crews on those flag-of-convenience vessels carrying what is effectively 6,500 tonne bombs into our ports in Australia are waved through our borders on as little as 24 hours notice. At the same time an Australian port worker could be forced to wait three months for their MSIC to be renewed.

We've been fortunate in Australia that the Morrison government's negligence on national security matters has not resulted in disaster and tragedy. In 2014 a truck hauling just 50 tonnes of ammonium nitrate rolled on a highway 30 kilometres south of Charleville, Queensland. Thankfully no-one was killed, but a secondary explosion injured eight, 'disintegrated' the truck, destroyed two firefighting vehicles and caused catastrophic damage to the Mitchell Highway. That was just 50 tonnes. We've seen the grave consequences of 2,750 tonnes in Beirut, but we're talking about 6,500 tonnes, which is what flag-of-convenience vessels are carrying in our ports with just 24 hours notice. The consequences are unimaginable.

The Morrison government has been warned of this danger for years. The Maritime Union of Australia, the MUA, has been particularly vocal about the threat that this gaping hole in our national security poses. After Beirut, in August last year, MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said:

The porous and substandard level of background checks on foreign workers through the Maritime Crew Visa—which is issued electronically without background checks—is completely inadequate and inappropriate for such high consequence cargoes.

Mr Crumlin went on to say:

Last year, 85,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate moved through the Port of Newcastle alone—30 times the amount that devastated Beirut—posing a significant threat to safety.

The Australian Government must urgently tighten shipping regulations to ensure dangerous goods are carried on vessels that are registered in Australia and crewed by Australian seafarers who have undergone appropriate training and security checks.

That is correct; 85,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate moved through the Port of Newcastle in 2019 alone. The Morrison government is fully aware of this. The Prime Minister was playing politics last week with national security at his press conference. In reality it's the Prime Minister who is playing fast and loose with our security. Ammonium nitrate has previously been used in terrorist attacks. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 demolished the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building with just 2,200 kilograms of ammonium nitrate.

There is a reason we have serious background checks and security qualifications for workers in the aviation and maritime industries. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said that flag-of-convenience vessels are attractive for terrorists and organised crime. The opposition has put forward amendments that would ensure that foreign crews are subject to background checking similar to that of Australian workers, so why is the Morrison government persisting with a bill that discriminates against Australian workers and doesn't elevate everybody to the great security challenges? This leaves ports open to organised criminals operating through flag-of-convenience vessels and leaves Australia's borders wide open to terrorist attacks that could be of a scale similar to—or even larger than—the devastating accident in Beirut.

It was reported by the Geelong Advertiser this morning that two crew members of the Chinese ship Glorious Plumeria, registered in Panama,have snuck through security and are currently at large. These two crew members would have received their visas with as little as 24 hours notice, so the government doesn't know anything about their background. The most likely explanation is that these two are just ill-treated crew members, as exploitation is rampant through flag-of-convenience vessels, but the fact is that, if the crew members can waltz into Australia without security checks, so can terrorists and so can organised criminals. The Morrison government is tough on the Biloela family—two young girls have been locked up on Christmas Island—while being soft on flag-of-convenience vessels, soft on organised crime and soft on terrorists waltzing into Australia without background checks. Minister, why does the bill force Australian workers to wait up to three months to renew their MSIC while foreign crews remain able to waltz across our borders without background checks and with just 24 hours notice?