Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my colleague for another insightful contribution. It is a pleasure to see him in this place, giving us his words of wisdom. The purpose of the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Amendment (Security Plans and Other Measures) Bill 2006 is to amend the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003, to simplify the procedures for making changes to maritime ship and offshore facilities security plans, to clarify measures relating to the plan approval process, to make a number of technical amendments to clarify the intent of the act, to make amendments to various acts consequential to the enactment of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 and to make a technical amendment to the Customs Act 1901.

The opposition spokesperson, Mr Bevis, has moved an amendment, and I think it is worth reminding ourselves of what that amendment entails. It entails a number of criticisms, condemning:

... the Howard Government for its failure to provide necessary maritime security and protect Australians, including:

(1)

the Howard Government’s failure to conduct security checks on foreign crews;

(2)

the Government’s continued failure to ensure foreign ships provide manifestos of crew and cargo before arriving at an Australian port;

(3)

the ready availability of single and multiple voyage permits for foreign flag of convenience ships including the ready availability of permits for foreign flag of convenience ships carrying dangerous materials in Australian waters and ports;

(4)

the failure of the Howard Government to examine or x-ray 90% of shipping containers;

(5)

the Government’s failure to create a Department of Homeland Security to remove dangerous gaps and to better coordinate security in Australia; and

(6)

the Howard Government’s failure to establish an Australian Coastguard to patrol our coastline …

I know that there have been considerable changes in the Department of Defence, some of which we believe are to deal with deficiencies in the security arrangements off the northern coast of Australia, in particular, with the creation of the Joint Operations Command, but I am afraid that the changes that have been made thus far do not satisfy the needs of Australia’s security environment as identified by the opposition spokesman. I say that as the member for Lingiari and as a shadow parliamentary secretary with responsibility for Northern Australia.

Our northern waters require much closer surveillance for security purposes than they have hitherto had. That is no condemnation of the role that the Australian Navy or, indeed, the Customs Service has played. Frankly, they just have not had sufficient resources to do the job that they are required to do. I must say that my knowledge of the Australian Navy personnel who are engaged in this task is that they do their job very professionally and they do it under very arduous circumstances.

Whilst I note that the new Armidale class of patrol vessels is gradually being put into service in the northern waters, I have to say that the poor buggers have been and still are sailing the Fremantle class patrol boats. They are not the most comfortable vessels. In those northern waters in the peak of the cyclone season—a very hot time of the year—they are not comfortable vessels by any stretch of the imagination. These personnel have a very difficult task that they have to undertake on our behalf. Despite the difficulties they have had with that equipment—and that is not to say that they have not been well served by it, but it is a difficult exercise—they have undertaken their task with much vigour and much application, and they deserve to be commended for it.

As I have highlighted many times in this chamber—as recently as last year in relation to the antiterrorism bill and earlier this year in relation to the Fisheries Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fishing Offences) Bill 2006—the problem of maritime security and border protection in Australia’s northern waters has not been addressed sufficiently by this government. We know this because of the number of vessels that continue to come into our waters for illegal fishing. The endemic nature of this illegal fishing was identified by Labor’s caucus—the Transport and Maritime Security Taskforce—in its report Maritime security and illegal fishing: A national disgrace. According to the task force, illegal fishing is a highly organised, sophisticated criminal activity. It is not about subsistence fishers on traditional vessels. They are using modern commercialised fleets equipped with modern technology: echo sounders, radars and GPS equipment.

From the work undertaken by Professor James Fox of the Research School for Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University in a report entitled Report on illegal fishermen in Australian waters 2005, we know that Australian waters are being targeted as easy pickings for illegal fishers. As I told this chamber on 31 May this year in my speech on Fisheries Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fishing Offences) Bill 2006:

What we know to be the case is that foreign fishers are using Australian shores, landing their vessels and in some cases setting up caches of food and even going so far as sinking wells for fresh water.

Along with the increased number of vessels is the increased possibility of vessels landing on the mainland. As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Quick, this provides a significant risk for quarantine issues on our northern borders and it has grave implications for industry—in particular in the Top End but, nevertheless, in the broader community. This concern was also raised in the caucus report.

We have had discussion in the past about our concerns regarding avian flu—indeed, much was made of that fact—and the possibility of an epidemic here in Australia. We now know that these vessels that foreign fishers have been sailing in have been landing on Australian soil. There is a distinct possibility that at some time down the line, if we do not stop these practices, we could end up having on our soil an exotic disease, such as avian flu, or another animal-borne disease, such as foot-and-mouth or rabies, impacting upon our broader population. You do not have to be an expert on these issues to understand what the implications would be to the Australian community if this were to take place.

From evidence regarding foreign fishing vessels in Australian waters given by Rear Admiral Crane to a Senate estimates committee on 17 February this year, we know that in 2005 there were 13,018 sightings of illegal vessels—and these could have been repeat sightings. This was a 35 per cent increase on the sightings of the previous year. In the same year, only 280 illegal vessels were apprehended and only 327 boats had their fishing gear and their catch confiscated. This represents 4.6 per cent of total vessel sightings for that year. Again, we would be negligent as a parliament if we did not express our concern to the government about this appalling state of affairs.

Again, in evidence given to Labor’s Transport and Maritime Security Taskforce, there was an assertion that nine out of 10 illegal fishing trips are successful. I recall in this chamber on 31 May recounting an example of one illegal fisher who had been arrested in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. This individual, as I said then, was not on his second, third or fourth visit; the person caught had made 103 voyages to Australia. We know now that deterrence has not been a real problem for these fishermen; they are still coming to Australian waters.

According to Professor Fox, 40 Indonesian fishermen drowned in Australian waters last year. These deaths should not have happened. We have even had deaths while Indonesian fishermen have been in the custody of the Australian community; there have been deaths of fishermen who had been detained by our defence forces or Coastwatch people and brought into Darwin Harbour. We know that, if we had an adequate maritime security operation which prevented or deterred fishers from coming into Australian waters, the threat or risk of such deaths would be minimised.

I know that the previous speaker, the member for Gorton, in his contribution talked about this—and, I have to say, this is a very important issue for the Northern Territory. Also, I am a bit alarmed that, despite the importance of this piece of legislation, there is only one government speaker making a contribution to this debate, and that is Alex Somlyay. Where is the member for Leichhardt? Where is the member for Solomon? Where is the member for Kalgoorlie?

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