Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I resume, I would like to congratulate the new member for Canning on his first speech and I welcome the many contributions that he will make in this place to the debates that we will be having for the rest of this term. Congratulations.

As I was saying, this bill is Work Choices on water and it fails in a number of places to secure Australian jobs, vital jobs, in the shipping industry. This bill fails the national interest. It fails to ensure that Australia has a strong shipping industry. It fails to ensure that we have good jobs in the shipping industry like we seek to have in other sectors of transport in our country. It fails the economic interest. We rely predominantly on shipping, with 99 per cent of our trade done by sea. We need to ensure that we have a strong, robust Australian shipping industry. These are good jobs that we could lock in if this government would just drop this legislation and get behind the jobs associated with it.

It fails the environmental interest. Shipping in Australian waters should maintain high environmental standards. It should ensure, through the use of Australian crewed ships, that the heavily used, pristine, important environmental areas like the Great Barrier Reef are crewed and piloted by Australians. We have seen time and time again that accidents have occurred as a result of foreign crewed ships being in some of the most important environmental seaways and waters in our country. This legislation fails the environmental test. Only through having Australian crewed vessels and Australian standards will we always ensure safety and environmental safety on our seas.

This legislation also fails the security interest. We know that screening of foreign crews is not as hard as the screening of Australian crews. I have mentioned already the fact that Australian crews have to have certain licences and certain skills. Foreign crews do not require the same. On those levels this bill fails.

But most importantly—and this is why this government needs to drop this legislation—it fails on jobs. There are 2,000 jobs directly and 8,000 jobs associated with this bill that are at risk and could be lost if this legislation is passed. That is 10,000 good, paid shipping jobs. The government needs to get serious about Australian jobs. You cannot come into this place and rant about the importance of trade and rant about the importance of exports and then not back it in by ensuring that we have legislation and rules in place that protect and secure Australian jobs. This does exactly the opposite. It seeks to do one thing: pander to the pressures of big business, only focus on costs and not focus on creating and sustaining a viable Australian shipping industry and Australian shipping jobs. It is another attempt by this government to union-bust, to break up and to undercut good Australian jobs with foreign workers and foreign flagged vessels.

I will finish with the words of Alex Kirby: 'I am an everyday working-class man with a fantastic wife and a beautiful daughter.' He wrote this when he was on the picket line on the wharves. 'These two ladies rely on me to provide them with a home, food and clothing—these essentials—and I have been fortunate enough to do this successfully until now.' These are the workers that this government will be going after if this legislation goes through. This government is not interested in Australian workers. It is not interested in the Australian maritime industry and in locking in and securing jobs. This bill is simply Work Choices on water.

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