Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I wish to continue my contribution on the Transport Security Amendment (Serious or Organised Crime) Bill 2016. It was a few weeks or a month ago that I was talking about this. We take transport issues in our ports and our airports very, very seriously, and so we need to. We have seen some of the terrible events around the world, unfortunately. Touch wood—I am touching wood everywhere—Australia has been lucky that we have not been affected directly yet. Let us hope that we never will be.

I just want to make this point: unfortunately, the government likes to talk up a good fight. The government likes to say, 'Look how well we're doing and aren't we fantastic.' With the greatest of respect I want to direct my comments: the government have deaf ears. When you were in government, Mr Acting Deputy President, you would have had your views, and I hope that now you have broken those shackles you and your party would seriously consider the ramifications on another piece of legislation. You may say, 'What's it got to do with the bill?' It has a lot to do with this bill. We cannot say that on one hand everything is Mickey Mouse and on the other hand, 'Don't worry, there's nothing to see; move along.'

For the crossbenchers, there is a bill floating around out there—somewhere between Minister Chester's office here and the tactics team on the government side—that is waiting to land. There are conversations going on to reinvigorate turning over a piece of legislation that was unceremoniously dumped here prior to the last election—the double dissolution—because the majority of the independents saw how stupid and how short-sighted this piece of legislation is when we want to talk about transport security. It was a thought bubble that came out in Senate estimates the committee reported on. The title of this report that they presented to former Minister Truss, who is now off doing other things, was—it will come to me; I will remember. Anyway, it was virtually deregulation of the Australian shipping industry.

When I first came into this building along with other senators, another one of my early inquiries was the MSIC legislation going towards the wharf and maritime security card. There was a lot of work put into that with stakeholders from employers, unions, consumers and users of shipping and transport—all sorts of stuff. Anyway, the card is in there. We know why the card is in there: to strengthen it up.

Unfortunately, this bill picks on Aussies more than anything else, whilst leaving this serious gap on foreign seafarers—without bringing out the xenophobic horn. It needs to be told to crossbenchers that if the government has their way they will deregulate the Australian shipping industry. What that means now for our coastal port trading, which is predominantly done with Australian seafarers, is unfortunately a lot of Australian ships are disappearing. We know one of the high-profile ones was the MV Portland. The Australian crew were yanked off in the middle of the night and told they were not going to be going.