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

And that is always the case here. They beat their breasts about how well the government is doing but, when it comes to representing the real needs and interests of their communities, they are found wanting. I think it is a major disgrace. In particular, with the member for Solomon, we have a member who has got up in this place before and spoken about the resource industries of the Northern Territory—none of which, by the way, are in his electorate. The only resource in his electorate is the hot air that emanates from his own being. All the oil and gas mining activity takes place in waters which are either offshore waters or in the electorate of Lingiari—my own electorate. The oil and LNG plant in Darwin Harbour is in my electorate. However, we see the member for Solomon getting up in this place and proudly spouting forth as to how these industries have all been as a result of the beneficence of the Howard government.

Where is the member for Solomon tonight? Why isn’t he here talking about the potential threat to those very industries if we do not have proper and adequate maritime security? This is critically important to securing Australia’s LNG trade. We might also ask him if he has any concerns at all about the way in which potential terrorists might actually get into Darwin Harbour, either on a particular vessel or by exploiting the circumstances that exist in relation to the resources in the community.

I note that the shadow minister, Mr Bevis, raised the significant issue of concerns about the potential for terrorists to mount suicide missions into Australian waters on vessels using an explosive like ammonium nitrate. You would want to know what the impact of that might be on Wickham Point in Darwin Harbour. You would want to have some interest in securing Darwin Harbour from that sort of threat. You would want to have some interest in securing our offshore platforms against that sort of threat. But we do not see it being demonstrated by the member for Solomon here this evening.

As important as it is for us to ensure we have adequate security to protect ourselves against those possible incursions, we also need to understand that an important part of satisfying our need for this sort of security—especially as we cannot identify, in most cases, the personnel on foreign vessels who are coming into Australian harbours—is to use, as far as possible, Australian shipping and of course highly skilled, highly qualified Australian crews. I believe this is an important part of adopting a strong maritime security regime.

This has been demonstrated already by the North West Shelf project where Australian LNG tankers crewed by Australians have a demonstrated commitment to the highest levels of maritime security aimed at maintaining security of both the LNG tankers and their valuable cargoes. Furthermore, the high level of Australian commitment to maritime security is important in maintaining our enviable reputation as a reliable and secure supplier of LNG on the world market—and this is potentially of great significance to those of us in the north of Australia where these LNG resources are being exploited. The security of Australian LNG is one of our key marketing advantages in the global LNG market. Not only is it good for Australians but it also delivers energy security to our LNG customers. Japanese, Chinese or Korean LNG receiving terminals can have a high degree of assurance that their cargo, the vessel and the onshore terminal facility will be secure while an Australian crewed LNG carrier is in port.

It has been a concern of mine for some years that Australian crewed vessels are absent from these important areas of trade. I am most concerned that, when we contemplate the development of our economy in the north of Australia and we contemplate the development of these massive resources off our shores, we do so in a secure environment where we know they will be protected. We know they will be protected not only for the economic benefits that they bring to us but also, and most importantly, because of the cost in human life that could eventuate should some disaster befall them such as a terrorist attack.

I recall that when the Timor Gap Task Force was in existence, during the years of the Hawke and Keating governments, one of the issues that we raised was the potential for ensuring the security of supply and the security of shipping into the port of Darwin and other places. We are here to support this legislation because it is important, but the government has failed us significantly in the area of maritime security and transport security and it needs to do a lot more to meet Australia’s security needs.

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