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

In relation to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee's report, Policy, regulatory, taxation, administrative and funding priorities for Australian shipping, which was presented out of sitting, I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Firstly, I want to thank my fellow Labor senators, and I want to thank the Greens and the crossbenchers for supporting this reference that I put up in the 45th Parliament. We were able to have a couple of hearings; we had two in Melbourne. Then, unfortunately, the parliament expired, and we went to an early election. I want to again thank the crossbenchers, the Greens and my ALP colleagues for supporting me in putting it through again for another go, so we could actually finish the fine work that we set out to do.

Madam Deputy President, as you know and as every senator in this building knows, I have an absolute undying commitment to seeing a successful, viable, profitable Australian shipping industry. It comes as no surprise that I have been the biggest critic of this government—and the Turnbull government, the Abbott government and the Howard government before it—on the way successive LNP governments have done everything they can to demolish and absolutely obliterate the Australian seafaring industry, particularly our coastal trading. That's as you well know, Madam Deputy President.

I don't want to get into a conversation about the First Fleet, especially after the Prime Minister's debacle the other day, but a good mate of mine said to me that we had more ships in the First Fleet than we have plying Australia's domestic trade now. I laughed and said, 'Nick, that wasn't funny; it's absolutely damn criminal.' I don't know what I have to do to try to set an alarm clock in Minister McCormack's office that goes, 'Ding-ding-ding, it's now time to get out of bed, wake up, do the job you are handsomely paid for, and actually start talking to the shipping industry in this nation.' Mr McCormack, your title is transport. This may come as a shock to you, but it's not just road and air; it's also rail and sea. In this nation we have this damn bad attitude when we talk about transport: we want to talk about road, rail and air but we don't want to talk about sea.

Coming back to the inquiry: I can go for hours and hours on this stuff because I have lived and breathed it for many years. But I was fortunate enough to go through and have another two hearings that we conducted—three, I think it was. There were three in Canberra. Zoom is just the pits. Unfortunately we had to do the last two meetings over Zoom. We had some 30 submissions and we heard from stakeholders—that's a funny word—in the shipping industry. They were predominantly shipowners, those who use shipping and the maritime unions, who were absolutely magnificent. There were some 28 recommendations that came out of this inquiry. In Australia we talk up how great it is that our mining industry can pull out all these minerals and resources that are owned by the Australian people and distribute them all round the world—so long as it's not done by Australian seafarers.

Okay, we know that the bluewater fleet has been under attack for many, many years. But the exploitation has come to the fore many times and it's just getting worse and worse. We don't know who's coming on these ships. I'm part of the parliament but I'm not part of the LNP government that has seen off Australian shipping. It really irks me. I'll touch on a couple of recommendations that I will come back to later—and I know that my colleague and very dear friend Senator Brown will be making a contribution on this when she gets her turn. There are some recommendations that I want to share with the Senate that need to be explored and discussed—and, for God's sake, let's set a second alarm clock in Minister McCormack's office in case he dozes back to sleep. We might be able to wake him up a second time.

Foreign flagged vessels: as I said, these foreign seafarers are being exploited. This is not new to this nation. We've had many, many examples of that. We've had inquiries into flags of convenience. The House of Representatives has been doing inquiries, and my committee and the RRAT committee have done a number of inquiries. There have been gun runners and people murdered and foreign seafarers missing. They have been exploited, earning nowhere near what Aussies make. But guess what? Aren't we wonderful? We're rubbing our greedy hands together because we can put more profits into the pockets of those at the top end of the corporations.

I just have to say this: God help us! What would happen to the dozy mob over on the other side if Australia's farmers were all put to sleep because we brought in foreign farmers so we could pay them a lot less? Oh, isn't that interesting? They can't even lift their heads—they wouldn't lift their heads. Anyway, maritime tax concessions are another interesting area that we have to start talking about and need action on. And, as I said, there are background checks for our maritime crew visas.

There is exploitation of maritime crew visas and establishing an Australian strategic fleet. Hasn't that frightened the living daylights out of that mob over there! Why would we want to do that? Why would we want to train Australian seafarers? Why would we want to have the skills available to have our own captains, masters, deckhands and seafarers? Why would we want to give Australian businesses in shipping the opportunity to purchase their own ships and ply their trade among our coastal ports? Why would we do that? Arrgh!

We could develop an Australian maritime cluster. This is another thing. Labor actually wanted to talk about this. Labor went to the last election and said, 'We would do this.' This is not new. We also said we'd have a strategic fleet—I remember Mr Shorten saying some 12 ships. It was exciting to think that someone actually does care. I also want to say this: this is not on their radar, because they're all asleep, but do you know what happens when our magnificent Navy actually gets hold of a ship? You know who does the sea trials? This mob wouldn't know. It ain't the Navy—it's not the Navy; it's our domestic fleet. They're the ones that come and do all the trials. They're the ones that get it all ready so they can hand it over to the Navy, but that mob over there are happy to see those skills disappearing. Well, they're actually not. They're happy to see those men and women put out of work and those skills gone so they can go to their mates and say, 'You can bring in more exploited foreign seafarers and, with a bit of luck, no-one will ask.' They'll get about $3 a day. Don't laugh at that. That's well known. You've only got to talk to the ITF to find out what goes on there.

We need a grown-up conversation. As I said, this winds me up. What winds me up is that we can't even have the grown-up conversation. We have now got a report. A lot of hard work has gone into it. This nation now needs to sit down. Shipping is just as damn important to this nation as other freight modes—I could probably say it's even more important, but that would put my truckie mates offside. It might put off my mates working at Qantas, who have just been thrown on the scrap heap by that so-and-so Joyce, and it might put my mates in the rail industry off, because they're pretty important too. But it is our whole national supply chain. Guess what? Freight moves all around this nation, but it's got to get into the nation. It ain't coming over on pigeons or bloody balloons. Sorry about that, but I do get wound up. How do you think the freight gets here, you mob? It comes over on ships, for crying out loud. I will have a lot more to say about this.

Another thing that's come up: my old mate Ian Bray from the Maritime Union of Australia has been saying to me for 10 years or longer that the exploitation of foreign seafarers and the exploitation of the temporary voyage permits, which this government throw around like confetti at a wedding, will have a flow-on effect on our transport supply chain. And now it has. I'll tell you what's come to the fore, too, and I'll be making a fair bit of noise about this: we have Australia's rail industry getting absolutely driven into the ground—Senator Rice, I'm going to have a good conversation with you about this too—because the freight that used to be on the trains from Brisbane to Perth, from Sydney to Perth, from Melbourne to Perth, from Parkes to Perth, from Adelaide to Perth is disappearing. The freight's still there, but do you know where it's going? Surprise, surprise; it's going onto foreign flagged vessels: temporary voyage permits, exploited foreign seafarers and, at the end of the day, greedy corporations rubbing their filthy hands together because they can't make enough profit as it is.

This is a conversation that this nation needs to have. I won't hold my breath thinking that the current minister for transport would even have a clue of what I'm talking about. I don't think he'd know a freight mode if it ran over his foot or hit him on the head, but, if some of the backbenchers have got some way of getting the AlphaSuit off him so he can start doing his job, because transport's in his pay packet—that's what he gets paid for. Hallelujah, Madam Deputy President; I'm only just starting. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to take note of document 55, the report of the inquiry into Australian shipping. I wish to thank Senator Sterle, to begin with, for his passion and his commitment to making sure that the issue of shipping stays on the agenda of this Senate. In the 6½ years I've been here and I've been the transport spokesperson for the Greens, shipping has continued to be an issue that has been dealt with atrociously by this government. We have seen the decline of Australian shipping. We have seen ongoing issues of severe exploitation of overseas workers who are working on foreign owned ships. We have seen proper conditions, proper wages, proper—good—jobs in Australian shipping just go down the gurgler. And it doesn't need to be this way. There are plenty of other countries in the world that have got similar environments to Australia where they manage to maintain a profitable shipping industry that employs workers under decent conditions and manages to make the most of the benefits of shipping, of it being a really good way of shifting goods domestically and internationally.

But this government have had their head in the sand about the reforms that are necessary to make that happen. When the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government came to power in 2013, we'd just had a change to shipping arrangements, which was an attempt to change things, but there were some problems with those arrangements—they needed some change. But rather than sitting down with the Maritime Union of Australia, the shipping industry and all of the various stakeholders and nutting out what needed to happen to reform Australian shipping so it would work, look after the workers and businesses, and make the most of the benefits of shipping, they've just pursued a deregulation agenda. They were happy to see Australian owned shipping go down the gurgler and all of our shipping in the hands of foreign run ships with incredibly exploited labour.

We've seen the absolutely awful situation of the maritime workers who have been stuck on a coal ship outside of China for months and months and months. They've been left there as the meat in the sandwich. The conditions that they're employed under are appalling, but no-one really cares what happens to those workers; they are seen as expendable. The fact is they have been there, suffering, but the attitude is: 'Oh well, that's just what happens. We've got trade disputes between Australia and China and the workers don't really matter.' That's the state of foreign owned shipping that this government seems to say is acceptable and that this government wants to see more of. It's unacceptable. We can do it differently, and this Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee report outlines recommendations on how to do it differently. With the submissions the committee received and the hearings with of all of the players in the industry, it outlines some ways forward which are agreed upon by a whole range of stakeholders.

I urge the government and Minister McCormack to actually sit down and have a really good read of this report. Think about what needs to happen if we are going to be serious about having a shipping industry that looks after workers, that thrives, that is there in fair competition with our rail and road industries rather than the current situation which is bad for everyone. It really upsets me because things could be done differently if there were a willingness to sit down, work with the various stakeholders, implement recommendations and move forward in a sensible, sustainable and ethical way. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.