House debates

Tuesday, 14 August 2018

Bills

Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Amendment Bill 2017; Second Reading

7:24 pm

Photo of Brian MitchellBrian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will respond to the member for Dawson. I could not help but think to myself, here he is advocating for the removal of GST from vessels worth $100 million, a tax that his party introduced to this parliament over the vehement opposition of those of us on this side. If his party hadn't introduced the GST he wouldn't be having that problem. You might want to think about that, Member for Dawson. This is a problem entirely of your own party's making. You brought in the GST; now you have to live with it. And to think that he stood there advocating for the removal of the GST from vessels worth upwards of $100 million, while the people of Bowen, when they go to their local shops, have to pay GST on the goods that they pay for—those good, hardworking people still have to pay the GST—well, it just beggars belief and says everything about those on that side of the House.

Australia is an island country. We are the only country in the world to straddle an entire continent. From east to west, north to south, we are surrounded by water. Of all the countries in the world, you would think that we, above all others, would cherish a domestic maritime fleet. Of all the countries in the world, you would think that it would be Australia that would home to a strong coastal shipping industry and that it would be Australia training the best maritime engineers, the best shipmakers, the best sailors and officers, the best technicians and the best navigators in the world. But that is increasingly not the case. Under the Howard government, Australian shipping was decimated. The Liberals happily turned a blind eye to massive rorting of temporary licences for foreign vessels in Australian waters, leading to the near disappearance of Australian vessels and Australian crews on our coastal routes.

When Labor defeated the Howard Liberal government, we introduced the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act 2012, which breathed new life into the sector by changing tax rules and tightening the rules around foreign vessels. The member for Grayndler was infrastructure minister at the time, and his changes to the coastal trading act remain Australia's biggest maritime reform since the passing of the Navigation Act roughly 100 years earlier. But now, again, we have a new attempt by the Liberals to cripple Australian coastal shipping, and, more particularly, to target the men and women who work on Australian ships. I've heard it said by some that the decimation of coastal shipping is an inadvertent by-product of this. I don't believe it is. I think it's the aim of the government—to decimate Australian coastal shipping.

Let's not beat about the bush: we all know that the Liberals hate Australia's coastal shipping sector because its labour force is unionised and refuses to doff the cap. While workers are unionised, whether on ships or building sites, in schools or hospitals, or on trains, the Liberals will do everything in their power to bust them apart, because they know that workers who are not unionised are easier to control, will accept lower wages and will not stand up for their rights in the workplace. The Liberals care about one thing—getting the cheapest deal possible. They don't like Australian coastal shipping, because it costs more than the rust buckets crewed by exploited foreign workers that can get goods from A to B for a few dollars less. Little wonder then that the Liberals are so committed to repealing Labor's legislation, which provides fairness for workers and certainty for investors.

The bill we're speaking about today seeks to deregulate the Australian domestic shipping industry. It will have the same effect on Australian shipping that Liberal policies have had on Australian car manufacturing. It will destroy investment and destroy jobs. Importantly, it will destroy career pathways for young Australians. This bill removes the preference for Australian flagged and crewed vessels, and replaces the three-tiered licencing regime with a single permit system that grants access to vessels of any nationality to work the Australian coastline for a 12-month period. It significantly extends the period of exemption from domestic wage standards for workers on foreign vessels in Australian waters. It's a disgrace. Every bit of this bill is an affront to Australian workers.

The Liberals are actively seeking to replace Australian ships with foreign ships. The Liberals are actively seeking to replace Australian workers with foreign workers. The Liberals are actively seeking to replace Australian wages in Australian waters with foreign wages in Australian waters. And they're not even being covert about it. If they can do this with ships, they will do it with shops, and they'll do it on building sites. How long before the Liberals actively seek to replace Australian shop workers and Australian construction workers with foreign workers on visas? How long before the Liberals actively seek to replace Australian wages with lower foreign wages on land, not just on water?

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