Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Labor thinks this is a good bill. We just think it should be strengthened. There's no review being called for here. The only review that got called for by this Senate was because your government, the Morrison government, didn't present their legislation fully formed to the parliament; they amended it after they introduced it. It is laughable that the government sit here and insist that somehow this is some kind of model legislative process they've gone through and the rest of us are just standing in the way. What we are trying to do here is deal with what you put forward, which was a half-formed piece of legislation. You amended it halfway through the legislative process. We've held an additional inquiry, supported by the crossbench in the Senate. We think this bill should be strengthened. We're not calling for an additional review.

The point of the amendment we are debating right now, for those who are watching this debate at home, is to actually facilitate the implementation of the ASIC as soon as possible and to invite the government to fix what the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in 2017 said was a hole in our maritime port security when it came to foreign crew. Again, I'm not making this claim. Senator Sheldon isn't making it. Senator Rice isn't making it. Senator Hanson isn't making it. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is making it. We take that seriously. Whether they take that seriously is up to them, and we'll see, when we vote on this amendment, where they come down.

What I would like to ask the minister about these two foreign crew who have, on Sunday, walked off a ship in a secure port there in Geelong is: is there any information she can provide the parliament as to whether or not these men pose a risk to the community, if they pose a COVID risk to the community and if it is known why the men left the ship?