George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

With great pleasure I rise to speak on the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Amendment Bill 2017. I want to talk about the aspect of this bill relating to superyachts and the provisions around superyachts, because one of the greatest benefits of the bill will be the jobs that are created out of an expanding superyacht industry. I'm particularly thinking of jobs that will be created in my electorate, around the Great Barrier Reef, one of the prime spots that superyachts want to come and visit, particularly the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are somewhat of a sailing Mecca. This weekend Hamilton Island Race Week starts, followed the week after by the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club race week, where every sailor is also a vice-commodore. The Whitsundays are just so beautiful. People who have been there, who have been out on the water and seen those islands, know that this is a world-class destination comparable to any around the world when it comes to sailing, whether it be Monaco, the Greek islands or the Caribbean. Being biased, I've got to say that it's better.

In the Whitsundays, just near Airlie Beach we have the Abell Point Marina, a very large marina that's been developed in recent years by the company there, headed by Paul Darrouzet. They have been instrumental in pushing for the establishment of a superyacht hub in the Whitsundays. Kate Purdie, the general manager at Abell Point Marina, emailed me today saying that it's expected that large numbers of superyachts will venture into the South Pacific in the next few years leading up to the America's Cup in New Zealand. For the Whitsundays to benefit from this influx of superyachts, it is imperative that we have charter rules similar to those of other South Pacific countries, such as New Zealand. Should charter be permitted in Australia, it is expected that vessels will stay significantly longer in the region.

The problem, as was alluded to in that email from Kate from Abell Point, is that there are currently impediments amongst our regulatory settings that prevent superyachts from gaining a temporary licence for a round-trip voyage. The regulations currently force superyacht operators to pay customs importation duties and taxes, so they simply don't come. Why would they? When you're paying the equivalent of 10 per cent on a vessel that's $50 million or $100 million, you simply go elsewhere. So, we don't get them. We have some domestic superyachts, but in terms of the big international drawcard, we simply don't get them. They go elsewhere. They go to New Zealand, they go to Monaco, they go to Noumea, they go to Vanuatu and they go to Fiji. They go anywhere else that doesn't have these impositions. What ends up happening is that we just lose the revenue. There are significant economic benefits—revenue in particular, as I said. The ability for these vessels to charter would unlock about $1.64 billion for our national economy, creating almost 12,000 jobs. That's money that I want to see pumped into the Whitsundays economy, pumped into the Mackay economy and pumped into the Townsville economy. That will be pumped into the Gold Coast and it will be pumped up into Cairns, and jobs will be created.

Bizarrely, there is an argument that's been put here, and I've heard it—and I've got to say, it's quite unfortunate that I heard some derogatory remarks by the Labor Party around this provision, as if this is some benefit for the richies. They simply don't come. They don't come to Australia, because of this tax. So, no money is actually being paid in tax at the moment. They don't come. We have domestic vessels here, but the significant number of superyachts that sail around the world go to places where there's no financial imposition on them like what we have in Australia, so they don't come, and we don't get that income. We could be getting income, because if they came and then they chartered the superyachts we'd be collecting the GST on all the tickets that went out. But they don't even come, so we don't get anything at all.

Blue-collar workers would receive a very big benefit from superyachts being here in their droves. Tradies and small businesses would be the big winners from superyachts spending time in Australia. Each vessel spends millions of dollars—about 10 to 12 per cent of their vessel value annually—in maintenance, which goes directly into small family-owned businesses up and down the coast, in these marinas, and employs workers. It's critical for all of these ports, particularly in places like the Whitsundays. Industry peak bodies are saying that superyachts domestically—and perhaps there are a few that come in from time to time, but not many—add about $590 million to our economy, but it could generate $3.34 billion by 2020-21, if the regulatory settings were right.

In 2016, Queensland Treasury commissioned an economic impact study of the superyacht sector. It was done by the Queensland Labor government. The strategy forecast Queensland's share of the global superyacht sector to increase by about 10 per cent, making Queensland a key destination for superyachts throughout the Asia-Pacific. The majority of the benefits would be in the Whitsundays, Cairns, and Port Douglas. Again, this is a critical reason why I'm here speaking on this and pleading with the other side to let it pass so that we can create these local jobs. It is money spent in the local community. But it's more than just the vessels getting fixed or serviced. There's the retail spend of the people who go on these vessels. They are very, very rich indeed and they drop a fair bit of coin when they're in a port. There are the food services—food that has to be loaded onto the vessels for the people on them. There is the accommodation, if they stop for a little while. Then there are the running costs, the repairs and maintenance and other provisions and supplies. Having a single superyacht in the marina at Abell Point, or any marina for that matter, would push about $50,000 to $60,000 a week into the local economy—a job a week. I'm told that in Noumea they have about 200 sitting there for a week every year. Think of the income we're losing. That is a lot of money flowing through a regional economy.

I have to give a lot of credit to Paul Darrouzet for being at the point we are at today with this legislation, Paul being the owner of Abell Point Marina. Back in 2016 we started this journey of looking at these provisions. He got in contact with me and said that, unfortunately, due to 20-year-old restrictions we achieve visitation from less than one per cent of the world's superyachts. Consequently, the vast economic benefits inherent in these visits are reaped by all of our Pacific neighbours, and specifically New Zealand, with its now world-class superyacht refit, repair and new-build industries. He said at the time that six superyachts that he knew of had stated in writing their intention to avoid the region in the next year, unless those regulations were removed, either by legislation, regulation, ministerial instrument or whatever is necessary. He has begged this place to remove the bureaucratic roadblocks and allow Australia's emerging superyacht industry to achieve its potential. We are here today to do that.

This legislation will exempt superyachts from paying customs import duties and taxes. It will remove the five-voyage minimum requirement, which better reflects the superyacht operating model. Superyachts are often chartered for a single voyage at a time. The operators follow the best weather and cruise the Pacific's beautiful locations, like the Whitsundays. The legislation will also broaden the definition of a voyage to include round trips—superyachts can't get temporary licences, because they're usually round trips that start and leave at the same port. The legislation will also allow vessels to dry dock under a temporary licence, which means repairs and refits of superyachts can be done in these places, once again pumping money into local economies and creating a hell of a lot of local jobs. I am told that what this legislation will not do is remove protections for Australian-flagged superyachts. An Australian-flagged superyacht operator with a general licence would still have the same right to contest an application under the coastal trading act.

This is an industry that is ripe for the picking. We've just got to get the settings right. Let me just explain the flow-on benefits that this could potentially have. There's a little community called Bowen in my electorate. Bowen has been a Labor town for a long, long time—until recently, I have to say. It is a coalmining town and a port town. These are salt of the earth workers. It's a little town that's suffered a death of a thousand cuts economically. Slowly things have been whittled away from it. We've pumped in government services there but industries have closed down, meatworks and saltworks have scaled back, and there have been knocks to the ag sector there. Adani, which everyone opposes, and the expansion of Abbot Point could have lifted that town up by now but, no, that's not to be.

Paul Darrouzet has a vision to have a huge marina down there at Bowen, which would have servicing centres for superyachts within it. This could create a whole new industry in that small town, which, as I said, over a long period of time—decades—has been dying a death of a thousand cuts economically. It could revitalise the place. It could create so many new local jobs just if we did this one thing—if we passed this bill—because there are people who are already looking to jump on board that potential investment and get it going. I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to deliver that for Bowen, but it is going to take this bill getting passed through this place to get that done, otherwise all these opportunities are dashed.

I've got to say that a lot of work that I have done, along with other people in the superyacht industry down here, over the last couple of years will probably have been in vain if this is not passed. We've done a lot in terms of changing the settings within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, working with the former environment minister—now health minister—and working with the current environment minister to get settings changed where these superyachts were restricted throughout specific areas of the Great Barrier Reef. They are completely unnecessary restrictions, because these are first-class environmental vessels. While they're big, big ships, they actually carry a very small environmental footprint. They go to very sensitive areas and they do it in a very well-managed process and a well-managed operation where they're not upsetting the local environment. We've done all that. We've achieved all that. We got the settings changed when there were people at the start saying, 'You probably can't do that. People will get upset,' but no-one's been upset. They've all been achieved.

What we need to do now is remove these financial barriers that currently send these superyachts to Noumea, Fiji and New Zealand—anywhere elsewhere where there's no financial barrier. All these other places are reaping the rewards in terms of the spend that the people who go on board the superyachts bring to local communities. They're getting the jobs. We're not getting them. We're not getting them in Cairns. We're not getting them on the Gold Coast. We're not getting them in Townsville, Mackay, the Whitsundays or Bowen. The sad thing is that if this doesn't pass this place, we just won't get them. It will go begging. It will take a long while before we get back to this place again where we're able to have a bill before the House that actually allows us to do this. It would be a great, great shame. For a little town like Bowen, a solid Labor voting town over most of its years of existence, another economic opportunity will be denied to them.

There are cheap shots that can be thrown, and they have been thrown in this place, about removing the GST off superyachts like it benefits the rich. It's nonsense. It will benefit these poor people in Bowen who are unemployed, underemployed and desperately seeking work. It will benefit the workers in Airlie Beach. It will benefit all of these communities up and down the Queensland coastline that could potentially have superyachts in there revitalising their communities with that extra spend.

I urge each and every one of the members of this House to think of those communities, think of those job opportunities, think of that money that could be pumped into these economies and vote for this bill.

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