Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have the greatest respect for these cruise liners. They are incredibly efficient businesses. I have had the privilege of travelling with them. My understanding is that there are only two companies worldwide now that dominate the whole market.

When they came and presented here to the parliament last year, I remember talking to the Australasian CEO. He told me, down to practical measures, the cost drivers—what it cost them to feed a person on the ship with everything from lobsters to breakfast: the whole gambit. I do not wish to repeat the dollars here, but it was ridiculously low. The reason for this is because they do things in such a way that they have to be very efficient but at the same time they have big cost drivers.

To the member for Bowman: he understands, and has made the point today, that this is not a huge dollar saving, but it is something that is critically important. Along with the member for Sydney, he pointed out today that this company does have a social conscience. And I think it is worth actually fleshing that out a little, because with the disaster that has beset Vanuatu recently it has in fact been Carnival Australia that has done an enormous amount of work over there. The point I am going to make here is that by helping Vanuatu they have been seen for their social conscience and the social fabric of their business to do things which, perhaps, are not just for the bottom line in the single financial aspect but for the triple-bottom line. They source their bottled water and their coffee, now used throughout the whole P&O Pacific Cruise fleet, via Vanuatu. They replaced a lot of their furniture on board and made sure that it met Australian Custom's needs. They did these things not because they had to but because they wanted to.

The point that I want to highlight here today is that the world is moving very quickly. Expectations are moving quickly, whether it is in innovation, whether it is in digitisation or whether it is in the environment. And whether we are talking about something as iconic as the Great Barrier Reef or something that seems so small in comparison—as to the admissions for a short period of time while in port and the number of particles per million that are coming out of these ships—they are equally as important to the people who live around them.

I would appeal to the board and the management of these two great companies that do so much for the Australian economy—and have done so much for our region in employing people, in creating a wonderful atmosphere—to say you make the almost impossible seem possible when you are a passenger on these ships. You look at the logistics, you look at the entertainment and you think that you are capable of great things, and we should applaud you.

On this occasion, I join with the member for Bowman and the member for Sydney in saying please do not wait for governments—whether it be the New South Wales government or the federal government—to mandate and require something. Lead, get ahead of the game, get ahead of the curve and show that not only are what you providing on board lifelong memories but also what you are doing is good in every aspect of your business. In doing so, your recognition as a wonderful corporate citizen that values your customers, as well as the environment and your bottom line will be recognised by us all.

I commend the member for Bowman for bringing this matter to the House's attention. By bringing it here today, I hope that this is all it takes for these two wonderful companies to take the extra step, go the extra mile and do something a little more—nothing more or less than has already been expected and that they are delivering in overseas ports.

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