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

Here we have it again—the government trying to say that, somehow, they're not responsible for the fact this bill, in various forms—

Senator Reynolds interjecting—

Five years—exactly, Minister.

Senator Reynolds interjecting—

I will take that interjection from the minister. She seems not to have listened to the fact that it was her government that allowed this bill to lapse at the 2016 election. They didn't bring it forward for a vote. Minister, how can Labor be holding up something that your government doesn't bring forward for a vote? Further, your government let it lapse at the 2019 election. The Morrison government let this bill lapse at the 2019 election, after Labor had already voted for it. It was amended, and, in a fit of petulance and stubbornness, the Morrison government didn't accept the amendments. They didn't even deal with them; they just let the bill lapse. Let's understand this, Minister: this bill would be law today if your government had not let it lapse at two elections.

So don't talk about filibustering. Your government did not even prioritise this legislation. You put time in for the superyacht legislation, but you didn't put time in for this one.

Senator Reynolds interjecting—

Here we have a minister who, with her constant little interjections over there, doesn't seem to understand the basic facts. Yes, this bill has been hanging around for five years, because they let it hang around for five years. They haven't done the work. They mismanaged it. They amended their own bill halfway through the parliamentary debate.

Don't sit here and lecture the opposition and the crossbench for applying appropriate scrutiny. I think it is reasonable to have more than one hour of debate on a piece of national security legislation, especially when we have a circumstance that makes the very point that the opposition and crossbench have been raising, and that is that the regime that exists around maritime crew visas is not sufficient. These aren't my words, Minister; these are the words of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. In 2017 it made clear that the regulatory regime and the practices around foreign crew allow for the importation of drugs, weapons and other illegal activities, and this bill doesn't do anything about solving that—it doesn't.

In fact, what have we seen? Your government and your border protection in the last few days have seen foreign crew abscond from a ship in an Australian port. If you think I'm not going to raise that, you've got to be kidding. This is the fundamental part of the bill. The minister just provided some additional information about these two crew members on the Glorious Plumeria. I thank her for the information. It's a pity it couldn't have been provided to the Geelong Advertiser, who I'm sure are watching this debate and may well be able to make use of that information, since they didn't get it through their inquiries, because the local community in Geelong are interested in this; Australians are interested in this. How is it the case that our borders are so porous that two crew members can just wander off a ship?

The minister said in her answer that somehow these two crew members got hold of their passports while one of them was cleaning the master's cabin. I believe that is the information she provided. It's my understanding that these passports are meant to be held in a safe on board a ship. Is the minister saying that the passports were not being held as they should have been on the vessel?