Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am indeed pleased that it has been conceded that the Nationals' platform is utterly irrelevant to national shipping policy in this country. That was a courageous point of order well made.

As to the final point that I referred to—and I will not mention the particular document that I was reading from in deference to the preceding speaker—the policy reforms before us create an Australian International Shipping Register and require the master and chief engineer to be Australian residents, while the balance of the crew may be foreign residents paid at internationally competitive terms and conditions of employment.

It would seem that these reforms satisfy, in the main, 75 per cent of the Nationals' policy objectives and are well on the way to satisfying the remaining 25 per cent. Yet today the Leader of the Nationals is seeking to push these five important reforming bills off to the never-never. It is very disappointing to see that, because the issues surrounding Australia's shipping policy have been examined at length and in consultation with industry on several occasions; indeed, they were considered by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in its final report in 2008. A regulatory impact statement has been prepared on the proposed reforms, and that has been made available. Ultimately it is not clear to any of us why the coalition, after a decade of inaction, is now seeking to defer meaningful, significant and revitalising reforms for our shipping industry for any reason other than, presumably, its own political ends.

These reforms mark the most significant and the most holistic reforms to Australian shipping since the early 1900s. They are long overdue. Australian shipping is at a critical point, and without the reforms before us we risk not only the considerable benefits that could flow to the industry from the mining boom but also the industry's continued viability. A failure to support an Australian shipping industry that can compete in the international marketplace is a lost national opportunity.

Our competitors in the global market are well ahead of us in fiscal incentives. They were well ahead of us during the Howard years, as I mentioned earlier. As a result, for more than a decade there has been almost no meaningful investment in Australian ships. One of the consequences of this lack of investment is that the average age of the Australian fleet now sits at around 20 years in comparison to a global average of around 12 years. Inevitably that has detrimental consequences for the productivity of the Australian shipping industry, its efficiency—and we have certainly heard about more efficient shipping from the Nationals' platform document, but they seem to block it out—

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