Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too was interested in the contribution of the member for Robertson, and her focus on marine and maritime heritage. Unfortunately, that is what is going to be left of the Australian shipping industry at the end of this government. We will have an industry that has been mothballed, and will be just remembered with nostalgia in museum exhibitions because the government are doing their level best to destroy anything that could possibly resemble an Australian shipping industry.

As a nation that is a trader, as a nation that exports most of what we produce, we should be a shipping nation. Part of our workforce and skills should be centred on the maritime industry. Unfortunately, and there has been a whole series of reasons why this has been so, we are seeing the demise of the shipping industry. There was a great effort in the 1980s and 1990s to modernise the Australian industry, to get rid of most of the restrictive work practices and put this on a proper modern industrial footing. Unfortunately, I believe the strategies that are being taken by the government today are very much designed to put an end to that. Although the legislation that we are dealing with at the moment focuses on important but small amendments to legislation in order to improve environmental outcomes from shipping activities—and we strongly support those—I think it is important that we take this opportunity again to put on the record our concern about that which is happening.

Of course, most recently we have seen the dispute that arose when the federal department issued a temporary permit to the vessel MV Portland to engage foreign crews for shipping of Alcoa's products between Portland and Bunbury. We see that it will be the workers who are currently, as I understand it, mostly based out of Western Australia—the 19-odd crew that crewed this vessel—who will be lost. They will be sacked and they will be replaced by foreign workers to do that Australian trade. So we are talking about intra-Australian trade, moving from Portland in Victoria to Bunbury in Western Australia. And as from next week, unless a legal action in relation to the validity of that permit is successful in the Federal Court, these maritime workers will be sacked and they will be replaced by foreign workers.

This is at a time where we are seeing job losses in Western Australia increasing quite dramatically as the mining boom goes down. I will just quote some of a note that I got from a seafarer, Dale Eaton, who is just absolutely in a state of shock and disbelief about the actions that have been taken by the Turnbull-Truss government and by Alcoa. He says:

The MV Portland has operated for 28 successful years between Portland VIC and Kwinana/Bunbury WA, in that time the Portland has trained a number of Deck and Engineering Officers as well as countless TIR/PIR Trainees to become professional seafaring IR's as it was the first purpose build ship for the MIDC concept, Which de manned vessels to keep trade routes open so Australian seafaring could be cost effective for the longevity of our industry.

So it was part of a project that allowed manning levels to be significantly reduced and to make Australian shipping a more cost-effective and internationally competitive industry. He says:

Now that we have been given notice we are battling each day with the hardships of families, uncertain futures and financial commitments. After 28 years of operating, the crews moral on board is at an all time low with each crew member is dealing not only with their personal hardships and struggles but also worried for the Australian seafaring future in this industry.

In what other industry would we find that acceptable? Would we find it acceptable for a manufacturing operation in Portland to lay off 19 people and to import labour from elsewhere to take their jobs? I think it really is a very difficult position that the government is now moving us into. There has been no adequate explanation of the decision by the department to allow this vessel to de-crew its Australian crew and replace it with a foreign crew. This is—

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