Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all of those members who have contributed to the debate on the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Amendment (Security Plans and Other Measures) Bill 2006. Some of them strayed somewhat from the precise nature of the legislation but I know that there is that privilege in second reading debates. Certainly a number of people from the opposition side have spoken about the issue of port security in relation to the reporting of crews and cargoes on arrival and also in relation to the carrying of dangerous goods such as ammonium nitrate.

Generally, they also threw in the political comment about a department of homeland security. Anyone who believes that the creation of new government department will somehow or other magically deliver a utopian solution to all these issues, and that that department should be called the department of homeland security, must have forgotten that this week is the anniversary of the New Orleans disaster—a disaster which surely must have put to bed for all time the notion that a department of homeland security can somehow or other deliver worthwhile responses to a crisis when it occurs. This New Orleans incident was a huge embarrassment to the United States and it was an embarrassment to the local authorities. But more particularly over recent times the real attention has been drawn to the failings of a homeland security department, and the very concept is clearly fundamentally flawed. Therefore I would have thought that the Labor Party, with the benefit of this experience and with having actually seen their utopian policy in action and fail dismally, would have rewritten that element of their party policy as well.

Can I refer to the issues raised by the honourable member for Brisbane, and I think the honourable member for Holt and others also mentioned the question of pre-entry security assessments for vessels that are coming to Australia. Let me make the point very clear that every ship seeking entry to Australia is subject to a comprehensive risk assessment regardless of the flag that it flies. The risk assessment takes all relevant factors into account, including information about the ship, its crew and its cargo. Security measures are implemented to address the identified risks. These may include ordering the ship to leave Australian waters or holding the ship in a particular position until particular actions are taken to address identified risks.

Australia requires security regulated ships to report prescribed pre-arrival information 96 hours before entry into an Australian port. There are cascading provisions to account for voyages that may be shorter than the prescribed 96 hours—that is, requirements to report at 72, 48, 24 or 12 hours depending on the voyage length. If this information is not reported to the Australian Customs Service within a certain time frame contact is made with customs, the vessel’s agent or the ship. If a vessel is within 24 hours of its intended Australian port and the relevant pre-arrival information has not been received, or if there are security concerns with the ship, we have the capability to prevent the ship from entering a port.

Under the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003 information that must be provided includes: confirmation that a valid international ship security certificate or equivalent is on board the ship, including its issuing authority and the date of expiry; the security level at which the ship is operating; the last 10 ports of call where the ship conducted a ship-port interface; whether the ship has operated at a security level higher than its current level, engaged in any ship-to-ship activity or undertaken any other special security measure; and the next four ports of call of the ship, if known. All foreign crew are checked as they enter Australia. Foreign crew go through stringent immigration processes with their names then checked against the various alert lists. The government has also announced the introduction of a mandatory maritime crew visa from July 2007 which will further enhance the screening of foreign seafarers seeking to enter Australia.

Reports of import cargo are made to the Australian Customs Service. The period within which the cargo report must be made is dependent on the length of the voyage or flight on which the cargo is carried. In most cases of sea cargo, cargo reporters are required to report cargo no later than 48 hours prior to the ship’s estimated arrival in its first port of call in Australia. The time frame reduces to 24 or 12 hours for voyages of less than 48 or 24 hours respectively. So there is a strategy in place to identify and check the crews and the cargoes coming into Australia. Opposition members who spoke on this bill should spend a little more time checking the facts and a little less time listening to their mates in the Maritime Union whose primary roles are industrial rather than having any real concern about security.

There have been frequent references to the transport of ammonium nitrate and other dangerous goods around Australia. I wonder what the opposition is actually proposing in this regard. Are they seriously suggesting that we do not allow ammonium nitrate to come to Australia? The reality is that it is an essential element in primary production and, in particular, in the mining industry. If we were to require that it could only be transported on ships that have an Australian flag or are Australian registered then our capacity to bring this product from the far side of the globe, in many instances, would be seriously limited. If we would not allow a single voyage permit or international vessel to carry ammonium nitrate from port to port in Australia then the alternative is to carry it by road. Do the opposition want semitrailer after semitrailer of explosives to travel through our capital cities, or would they prefer the safer option which is, clearly, to carry it on ships? Day after day the opposition raised the same very rare examples of where they considered there have been incidents and issues of concern.

In particular, there is reference to the storage of ammonium nitrate with other volatile products as occurred on the Grandcamp. The Grandcamp incident occurred 60 years ago. We have made a bit of progress since that time and I think it is not unreasonable that the industry recognise that. The shipping of ammonium nitrate is now regulated internationally by the International Maritime Organisation, and Australia is fully compliant with the international regulatory regime, which has a comprehensive range of measures to ensure that the transport of these products, even though they may be inherently dangerous, is done in a safe and effective way. The reality is that whenever issues of concern have been identified the government seeks ways to effectively address those problems and ensure that transport around Australia is effective and secure.

As I have said on numerous occasions, I have a great deal of confidence in the important role the maritime sector will play in Australia’s future transport task. Clearly, as a country that is critically dependent on exports, shipping has a key role to play and it is important that our maritime sector be as good, efficient and competitive as any in the world. There is also an important role for the maritime sector and shipping in transporting freight domestically between one capital city and another. It is already cheaper to bring containers from Darwin to Melbourne by ship than it is to take them by rail or by road. With the growth in pressure on our major road networks, particularly between our east coast capital cities, shipping could play an important role in moving vital freight between our capital cities. We need to have efficient ports and appropriate networks to lead in and out of those ports to make that happen, and we also need quality ships and quality shipping systems to ensure that maritime transport is competitive with rail and road and can take an increasing share of our freight burden, which is going to double over the next 25 years. For that reason, we are going to need ships to do a lot better and to take a bigger share of the load in moving freight around the country.

Security is of great importance to the confidence Australian people have in their transport system. So this bill, which strengthens the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act, is also important. The bill simplifies the procedures for making changes to maritime, ship and offshore facility security plans. It clarifies the processes in place with the establishment of security zones. It shortens the time allowed for the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services to approve security plans and it clarifies when the security plan approval period commences.

There are a number of other technical amendments to a wide range of legislation administered within the Transport and Regional Services portfolio. With a handful of exceptions, they are unrelated to transport security matters. The bill does not propose to vary any of the policy settings underpinning Australia’s maritime security regime; it is a procedural bill. The passage of this bill will assist the maritime industry by providing for a simpler process for making minor variations to security plans without undergoing the full plan revision process. The government also wishes to simplify the administrative process for establishing maritime security zones. Consultation undertaken by the Department of Transport and Regional Services with the maritime industry has assisted in developing these amendments, and this bill has the support of industry.

The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee has conducted an inquiry into the bill and in its report tabled on 15 June 2006 recommended that the bill be passed without amendment. The government looks forward to the passage of this bill within the current sitting of parliament to enable maritime industry participants to focus on implementing and maintaining the security measures outlined in the security plans, thus contributing to the strengthening of Australia’s maritime security arrangements. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context