Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about maritime security. There is no more important issue in this place than the security of our nation, and maritime security must be at the heart of it.

Our sovereignty depends upon our maritime security, and this government is undermining that security day by day. We must be able to build, maintain and repair our naval vessels in this country. Yesterday marked the end of the journey for Forgacs workers—900 Forgacs workers have lost their jobs because of the inaction of the Turnbull-Abbott federal government. They have sat on their hands for 2½ years and done nothing about the naval shipbuilding 'valley of death'. Thousands of naval-building jobs hang around their necks, and they should be ashamed for undermining our maritime security.

An equally important part of our maritime security is the merchant navy, and the ability to move, transport and feed this nation using Australian-crewed maritime vessels. I am proud of the coastal-trading laws put in place by the last Labor government. I am proud of them, and I am ashamed that the current government is undermining them. The current government tried to change them. They tried to introduce Work Choices on water. They tried to ram it through parliament and they were defeated. They were defeated by the Labor Party and the crossbench in the Senate.

Now they are undermining it. They are not respecting the will of the parliament. They are going through the back door by issuing temporary licences for permanent trade. That is a gross disrespect to the parliament and a gross disrespect to the sovereignty of the people embodied in the will of the parliament, and it is ordinary workers in this country who are suffering because of this gross abuse. It is the workers of the MV Portland and it is the workers of the CSL Melbourneworkers marched from their berths and their bunks in the dead of night. They were replaced by foreign workers being paid as little as two dollars an hour, all because this government does not support Aussie jobs, Aussie workers and Aussie wages.

I have met some of these workers. I had the privilege of attending a rally yesterday where I met some of the workers, and I am going to attend the community picket around CSL Melbourne at the first available opportunity to express my support for these Australian workers who are standing up for Australian wages and conditions. This is what is at stake in this struggle—Work Choices on water, where the current government says, 'If you drive down the Pacific Highway in a truck you get Australian wages; if you drive around the Pacific Highway you have to use an Australian registered truck. But if you are on the blue highway—the great maritime highway that surrounds this nation—you can bring foreign workers in and exploit them. Pay them two dollars an hour by using flag-of-convenience vessels that are often poorly maintained and dangerous.' What is at stake is not just the future for Australian families; what is at stake is the economic prosperity of this nation. We should be able to pay decent wages to Australian workers so they can live and prosper in this country.

There is also the environmental risk. I represent the beautiful Hunter region, where the Pasha Bulker washed up into the electorate of my neighbour, the member for Newcastle, in 2007. That was a foreign-flagged vessel with a foreign crew. It washed up there because they ignored instructions from the port authorities. I have seen the damage done to the Great Barrier Reef by foreign-flagged vessels ignoring safety warnings; they do not understand the environment and do not understand what is at stake. So there are great environmental issues at stake here if we allow Work Choices on water.

And there are huge national security issues. Every year, like my colleagues, the members for Newcastle and Shortland, I attend Merchant Navy Memorial Day—

Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So do I!

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So does the member for Dobell. I am glad she is associating herself with my remarks! It is the day where we commemorate the sacrifice of the thousands of merchant mariners who lost their lives fighting for freedom. They lost their lives in some of the worst conditions one could imagine—whether it was in the Arctic convoys going to Russia or in the South Pacific. We honour their contribution and their sacrifice. We need to honour it by keeping the merchant navy alive and by keeping the maritime industry alive because we never know when we are going to need them.

Work Choices on water, ignoring the Labor party's great coastal trading laws, undermines that. It says that we do not care who staffs our vessels and we do not care where they are flagged; we just want the cheapest possible transport. That same logic could easily be applied to Australian truckies and it could easily be applied to ignoring Australian environmental laws. It is the thin end of the wedge and it is an un-Australian approach. I stand proudly with the MV Portland crew, I stand proudly with the CSL Melbourne crew and I stand proudly with the Maritime Union of Australia and say 'no more'. We need to stand up for Australian workers, Australian wages and Australian conditions and say 'no more' to undermining our maritime security.