Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I note that, in his response, the minister, when he did go to the specific question that I raised, said that the current legislation was not working for roads. He went on to not address at all, in my view, the absolute parallels that are there between the domestic freight task on sea, on rail and on road, and how, if you allow foreign wages to be paid by foreign companies competing against Australian wages and Australian companies, you destroy the level playing field. It is not rocket science here. It is demonstrated by the government's own legislation, indeed.

I hope the minister appreciates the fact that I am being very specific about what I am asking here in referring to the legislation, as is appropriate for the way that consideration in detail should be conducted. I refer the minister to page 152, to the cost-benefit analysis, which is the minister's own official modelling, and to table 5.15. It says that the preferred option, which is option 6, will have the following effect on the Bass Strait non-bulk trade. For the Tasmanians who might be present or listening to this, they might want to think before they vote on this legislation both here and, importantly, in the Senate. The official government modelling now uses a base case expectation of 100 per cent Australian crew. The preferred option, and the basis of the bill, shows 35 per cent Australian crew and 65 per cent mixed crew—that is, a 35 per cent reduction from the circumstance of there being 100 per cent. Given that it is the official modelling, has the government estimated how many actual seafarer jobs in the Bass Strait trade will be lost under the legislation?

The evidence before the Senate inquiry was that there were almost 400 seafarer jobs in the Bass Strait trade now and that most would be lost under the government's modelling. I want to ask whether the minister agrees with the modelling in the legislation that assumes the following with respect to the preferred option as it applies to the existing vessels in the Bass Strait non-bulk trade. The top of page 152 says this:

… we assume 4 vessels will register under a foreign register to reduce operating costs.

So it is very clear what they are suggesting in this legislation. Minister, which vessels does your official modelling assume will reflag from Australian flagged ships to foreign flagged ships? It is there in the assumptions in this legislation. Does the minister agree that the motivation for reflagging is the difference between Australian based wages and foreign wages? I might allow the minister to respond.

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