Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with some satisfaction that I introduce today the Marine Engineers Qualifications Bill 2013 which addresses the reduction in maritime safety standards that flowed from the government's 2012 shipping reforms that, regrettably, left sections of the Australian maritime industry underregulated. In 2012 parliament passed the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Bill, also known as the 'national law', but that bill, while achieving positive results in other areas, had the unfortunate effect of reducing the requisite qualification standards for engineers working on marine vessels. I have no doubt that this is an unintended consequence of the national law but a consequence it is nonetheless and one that has negatively impacted upon a significant proportion of Australia's trading fleet. Such vessels include the oil tankers Tandara Spirit, Hooghly Spirit and Alexander Spirit, which were all previously regulated by the Navigation Act 1912 when trading in Australian waters but which under the national law are now subject to a significantly lower regulatory standard.

I have raised Bass Strait freight issues in this place on many occasions. In light of that I would point out that this bill would improve the working standards and conditions for those mariners crossing Bass Strait on commercial vessels and in particular for those crewing the two Spirit of Tasmania ferries as well as the Tasmanian Achiever, the Victorian Reliance, the Searoad Mersey and the Searoad Tamar, all of which trade between Melbourne and Tasmania. In essence, the problem here is that the maritime safety standards governing how these ships operate are lowered by the national law, and these vessels are just the start of it, because the reduction in appropriate safety standards as a consequence of the national law applies to numerous other vessels around Australia, including the entire offshore oil and gas industry, as well as every commercial harbour tug in every port in Australia.

We are a rich country with a strong tradition of appropriate wages and working conditions. It is simply not acceptable, not in the 21st century, that we would have any government reform resulting in reduced safety at work. But Australia's maritime industry is immense, and the unintended consequential reduction in regulatory standards resulting from the government's 2012 shipping reforms will have an immense impact unless we correct it.

Regardless of the type of vessel a marine engineer works on, the expectation should be the same—that they are qualified and verifiably working to an appropriate standard. And this standard should be as high as we can sensibly make it. Anything less is simply not good enough, especially given the importance of the role marine engineers play in maintaining a safe working environment for all maritime workers.

This bill is also about honouring a promise. Back in October 2009, the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers met with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, or AMSA, and agreed on a number of positive engineering initiatives to safeguard marine engineers and their profession. The engineers institute was particularly in favour of the initiatives relating to qualifications, as guaranteeing a minimum standard of knowledge and skill is essential to ensuring maritime work remains safe. But, three years later, AMSA used the review of Marine Orders part 3, which relates to seagoing qualifications, to water down the training standards and remove AMSA's college audit and examination function, even though the majority of submissions from across the maritime sector opposed these changes. Subsequently, AMSA did suspend the process and put the proposed changes on hold. However, I am told that the process may be resumed and the changed standards rolled out as soon as this year, despite ongoing opposition from the industry and from the engineers themselves. This bill is necessary to safeguard in legislation those positive engineering initiatives agreed to in 2009 between the marine engineers institute and AMSA. It is even more necessary in light of the uncertainty about AMSA's intentions right now.

I now turn to some of the main aspects of the bill, which in essence would establish the minimum standards for the various positions held by engineers on Australian vessels. The key area that has come most under attack in recent years is the amount of time engineers are required to spend on operational vessels to assure their competency with machinery of different types and scales, and the standard for which AMSA proposed the most severe reduction relates to the position of engineer watchkeeper. In fact, it is proposed that the current standard of 36 months education and training be replaced with the far lesser requirement of just 12 months, even though it is clear that the same safety standards cannot be achieved with just one-third of the training. This bill would, crucially, remedy that problem by enshrining the longer training requirement.

The bill will also establish a standardised method for examinations that would ensure consistency across certifying educational institutions, including a best-practice model for testing competency, the value of which is self-evident, I suggest. The background to this is the stalled 2012 review of Marine Orders, where AMSA proposed to delete the current requirement for an oral examination conducted by an AMSA examiner prior to the certification of an applicant as competent and safe. This would have potentially had serious safety consequences, as the oral examination provides AMSA examiners with a valuable qualitative insight into the relative competencies of applicants and complements the information gleaned from the extant written tests.

This bill also serves to further increase the auditing requirements for colleges and registered training authorities to ensure that regulators have adequate and accurate, up-to-date information about compliance best-practice methods for providing education and training for marine engineers. In fact, the bill requires that AMSA's principal examiner undertake an annual audit of colleges and training facilities approved to provide marine engineering training, and, in the event that the principal examiner is not satisfied that the college or approved training provider is operating to an appropriate standard, that the training provider's approval to provide marine engineering training then be revoked.

The final point I want to make is that the bill serves to consolidate all relevant standards into one document. We hear much in this place about the reduction of red tape and compliance burden for business and workers. This bill actually does so by ensuring that all relevant standards for marine engineers are located in one document where they will be easily accessed and understood. Furthermore, due to the sometimes complex regulatory framework surrounding maritime operations in general, this bill ensures that where other legislation or regulation is inconsistent with this bill the standards contained in the bill shall be accepted and replace the inconsistency. Frankly, no-one should need to spend an excessive amount of time, money and effort determining exactly which standards in which legislation or regulatory instrument apply in which circumstances. So this bill affords marine engineers and those working in the sector the certainty that the standards established in this bill are the standards they will be held to.

All these provisions in the bill that I have described are important individually, but even more important, I suggest, is the fundamental function of the bill as a whole, which is to help ensure every worker's right to a safe workplace. Yes, all people who work or travel on a vessel in Australia deserve the peace of mind that it has been built, serviced and operated with skill and expertise. By guaranteeing a minimum standard for knowledge and training, this bill helps create that peace of mind.

In closing, I would like to thank Michael Bakhaazi and Henning Christiansen, who are in the gallery as I speak, from the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers for their help with the preparation of this bill. They and their colleagues in the institute are to be commended for the work they do to support their members and I think that should be recognised.

I encourage all members in this place to support this bill. Every day that there are engineers working on Australian vessels there is the possibility, through a fault in the system and no fault of their own, that their qualifications are inadequate for their work. Quite simply, this puts people in danger, and that is entirely unacceptable. I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a first time.

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 41(c), the second reading will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.