Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month Devonport was the scene for what I fear may become a common event in the maritime sector. The 36 crew of the Caltex oil tanker Alexander Spirit learnt that on their return to Singapore they would lose their jobs. Soon after, the nation learnt that these jobs would be filled by foreign workers. My heart went out to these men and women who had been previously told that their jobs were safe until 2019. These people have mortgages, families and plans for the future—all of these were thrown into doubt with the terrible news.

Whenever I could I went down to the ship and the community gathering. I visited not only to show my solidarity with these workers but also to register my disgust at the Abbott government's complete unwillingness to fight for these Australian jobs. But it was not just me who recognised how wrong this move was. In fact, the whole community responded. A picket was set up beside the ship, which was manned for the entire three weeks the ship was docked in Devonport. A community rally drew around 200 people from the surrounding region in support of the workers and their plight.

Clearly the local community cared about what was happening to these hardworking men and women. It was great to see. Sadly, not one Liberal member of parliament attended the rally. In fact, even though there are seven Liberal members of parliament living on the north-west coast, not one ever went to meet the workers, to learn their stories and to offer them support. Not one member of the state or Liberal government attempted to fight for these maritime jobs.

On one of my visits to the picket line I was grateful for the opportunity to board the ship and meet with these hardworking men and women personally. The human faces on board of Joanne, Varro, Andrew, Ray and Stuart tell the story of why this move by Caltex to replace them with a foreign crew is just so wrong. The workers told me stories of their families, their love of the sea and their jobs that they thought were secure. They also told me how the life plans they had mapped out on this basis were now in jeopardy.

It was very emotional to sit on the ship seeing them break down in tears, wondering why they could not get their questions about their future answered after several days of waiting. They knew that once the ship sailed for Singapore they would not have jobs. These workers put on a brave face to the public at the community picket, but talking to them in their workplace and their home—as some of them referred to the ship—was heart wrenching. They told me how proud they were of the work they had done and how differently Australian crews operate compared to foreign crews. They talked of the high standards that Australian crews uphold. One told me that when he worked on a foreign-flagged boat the normal procedure was to dump or pump all the rubbish directly into the ocean—something that Australian crews would never do.

But the decision of Caltex does not stop at the men and women who have lost their jobs on the Alexander Spirit. It signals a threat to Australia's maritime capacity if we let these skilled and strategic jobs go offshore. John Lloyd, a maritime professor at Launceston's Maritime College, recognised this very serious risk recently when he said:

The Australian seafarer is something of an endangered species, and for an island nation dependent on shipping for its international trade, this should be ringing warning bells … the decline will … continue without a fresh perspective and a willingness for constructive dialogue.

Professor Lloyd is absolutely right. Australia's crewing record is second to none. No Australian vessel with an Australian crew has even been detained for a breach. When you compare this to the numerous incidents of foreign-flagged vessels being detained for safety, ethical and environmental issues it becomes clear how important it is to maintain our local crews.

This is not just about maritime jobs; it is about our national capacity, maritime security, the environment and, very importantly, our fuel security. Australia is already down to four refineries and two Australian crewed vessels which carry fuel around our coast, compared to eight refineries and 11 vessels in 1996. Australia has only around three weeks supply of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. Since 2000 our dependence on imported fuel has grown from 60 per cent to 91 per cent today. Fuel is the lifeblood of our society and without it everything would come to a screeching halt.

Given these very serious risks to both our maritime capacity and our fuel security you would expect the government to be pulling out all the stops to find a solution to save these jobs. Well you would be wrong. In fact, the terrible circumstances that have befallen the Alexander Spirit crew are just the tip of the iceberg. If the Abbott government succeeds in passing its job-killing coastal shipping legislation, then we will see many more stories like this—more stories of skilled Australian workers sacked, more stories of foreign crews moved in to be paid Third World wages and more stories of Australian fuel and maritime security being put in increasingly greater peril. The coastal shipping legislation introduced into parliament in the most recent sitting would allow foreign-flagged vessels working between Australian domestic ports for up to 183 days a year to pay Third World level wages.

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's rubbish!

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This means that Australian shipping companies that pay Australian level wages will not be able to compete and Australian mariners will lose their jobs. Senator Canavan says that is rubbish, but he does not actually care about Australian jobs. If he did, he would not think it was rubbish.

Make no mistake. If this legislation passes, it will destroy the Australian shipping industry. It will do this by removing the requirement for freight movers to first seek out an Australian vessel or, if one is not available, require any foreign-flagged vessel to pay the crew Australian level wages. The reforms would absolutely demolish the level playing field created by the former Labor government. It is clear that the only plan the Abbott government has for Australian mariners is to lower their wages and conditions or replace them with foreign workers.

In Bass Strait the outcome of this legislation will be that two-thirds of Australian maritime workers will lose their jobs. You do not need to take my word for that. The explanatory memorandum is very clear when it states:

The preferred option would be consistent with the generally progressive opening of the Australian domestic shipping market to foreign participation …

Not only does the legislation aim to hand Australian jobs to foreign workers but it actually measures its success by how many jobs are lost! In fact, the scale of the job losses is laid out in black and white in modelling attached to the Abbott government's coastal shipping legislation. The findings of the official modelling are totally unambiguous. Under the government's preferred option, two-thirds of Bass Strait shipping workers will lose their jobs to foreign workers if this malignant legislation passes through this place.

Currently, legislation requires all workers on Bass Strait to be Australians who must be paid Australian wages. But the modelling shows that Australian workers would plummet from 100 per cent to 35 per cent of the Bass Strait workforce. The government modelling also assumes that two-thirds of ships servicing Bass Strait would be foreign flagged. This is truly unbelievable. Not only is the government actively trying to destroy Australian jobs, but it actually using the number of jobs lost as a measure of the success of this wretched legislation.

While the Abbott government wants Australians to believe their three-word mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs, this legislation betrays their true agenda. I sincerely hope that Australians will look past the simplistic slogans and empty rhetoric of this government and judge them by their actions. The reality is that this is not an isolated incident. In fact, the Abbott government has a long and shameful record of selling out Australian workers. They goaded Holden to move off shore, they raised the white flag when Caterpillar announced plans to axe 280 jobs in Burnie and they are trying to shut down South Australia's submarine building industry. Now they are trying to ram through legislation that could send two in three Australian shipping workers on Bass Strait to the dole queue. It is a very short-sighted government that actively sets out to give Australian jobs to foreign workers. Not only that, but it then goes on to use the Australian job losses as part of the measure of the success of the appalling legislation.

Yet again, the government has shown its willingness to sell out Australian workers in the race to the bottom. At the same time, the government has completely failed to recognise the very real costs of sending these hard-working Australians into unemployment, not only for companies and government agencies but, more importantly, for their families and for the communities that these workers live in.

The Senate is scheduled to debate the legislation in the upcoming sittings of parliament. I urge senators in this place to stand strong against this government's plans to destroy Australian jobs. Last week, we saw the most unemployed people in Australia since 1994 and we saw confidence drop to an all-time low. The Abbott government's outrageous coastal shipping legislation will only make matters worse.

This government says they care about Australian jobs. But all we have seen since they got in is jobs going overseas and out the back door. There have been no jobs created for the future, for our children and grandchildren. We need a government that fights for Australian jobs, not just sells them out to the lowest bidder.