Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the report of the inquiry into the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for Australia's foreign affairs, defence and trade. As a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, I was pleased to see the broader strategic implications of COVID for our defence, security, trade and diplomacy taken up by this inquiry. I want to draw to senators' attention one key aspect of the report. I speak to the humanitarian and economic crisis in our shipping industry, brought on by the failure of the federal government and some state governments to coordinate ship crew changes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many in this chamber will be aware of the plight of over 400,000 seafarers around the world who, due to border and quarantine restrictions, have been trapped aboard their ships. Many of these crews have been at sea for over a year. By this Christmas, some will not have been able to travel home to their families in 18 or 20 months. The physical and mental health strain on these seafarers is immense. There have been suicides and serious mental health episodes. These ships have been described by Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations as 'floating prisons'.

Let's bear in mind that Australia, like many countries, is a signatory to an International Labour Organization convention that limits time on board without leave to a maximum of 11 months, and that most crews would ideally get leave after nine months. These are human beings bearing the brunt of the pandemic so that vital goods can continue to be traded around the world. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is required to act on behalf of seafarers when their time aboard breaches the 11-month limit. They recently raised this limit to 14 months so that ships can be accepted at Australian ports. In the words of Carl Schou, who is the Singapore based CEO of Wilhelmsen Ship Management, Australia has taken the most stringent stance on crews overdue for change, and this is setting a good international example, but this alone does not solve the underlying problem.

The shipping and ports industry have joined with unions like the International Transport Workers Federation to alert governments, including our own, to the humanitarian and economic consequences of not making arrangements between countries and states to facilitate crew changes. The CEO of Ports Australia, the Hon. Mike Gallacher, warned the joint standing committee in July that not enough was being done to address the inevitable flow-on effects of this crisis. He said:

… if you have a vessel pull alongside and the crew walk off that vessel, then it's going to be very difficult to move that vessel away from the wharf, which therefore causes difficulties with regard to the export or import supply chain … It wouldn't take very long … if we had a number of these vessels falling into this situation, whereby ports could simply come to a grinding halt.

This industry must deal with the different quarantine and crew change arrangements for every country. For crews travelling in Australian waters, the challenges of quarantine and border restrictions have been compounded by each state border closure having its own additional set of rules. While there has been an effort by the Australian federal and state governments to coordinate interstate trucking throughout this year, our federal government has not been so effective, along with the states, in having a national strategy to coordinate to get shipping crews safely across borders so they can be relieved. Relief crews have often been forced to quarantine twice, adding additional weeks to their already long service times. Seafarers have waited weeks or months to be repatriated to their home countries. Meanwhile, the shipping of key commodities to our export markets has been put at risk, significantly delayed and in some cases halted altogether.

It is with growing alarm that I report that current trade disputes with China have escalated to the extent that this crew change crisis is at a new level. The International Transport Workers Federation reports that there are now between 50 and 80 ships with Australian coal on board languishing at anchor off Chinese ports. Some of these ships have been at anchor for over five months after loading in Australia. Many have had seafarers on board for up to 15 months already.

One such ship is the Jag Anand, an Indian flagged ship carrying coal from Australia to Jingtang in northern China. This ship arrived on 13 June this year and still has not unloaded its cargo. That is five months waiting, and there is no indication of when the ship will be allowed to berth. China is also enforcing a law that non-Chinese nationals may not disembark onto Chinese soil, meaning that, even if the ship can berth, the seafarers will remain trapped aboard. Of the 23 seafarers aboard the Jag Anand, 15 have already been on board for at least 16 months. Three of these are about to hit 20 months of service on board, trapped upon the ship.

This pandemic has made all of us much more aware of the sacrifices that essential workers are making every day. Essential workers have kept our supermarket shelves supplied and stocked; ensured care and hygiene in our hospitals and aged-care homes; and kept our public transport, logistics and food delivery networks running. Our seafarers should not be the forgotten essential service workers across the world. They've kept trade in goods and bulk commodities flowing throughout the pandemic. Australia is one of the countries most dependent on shipping. Over 95 per cent of our export trade is maritime trade. Our mining, farm and other exports live and die by this trade. It is time for Australia to heed the calls of the International Transport Workers Federation and many others and to show national leadership.

Importantly, this report is a bipartisan report. It is to the credit of the chair and the deputy chair that this report has been delivered in the fashion it has. The report recommends that the Prime Minister lead deliberations by the national cabinet process to produce a national framework that will ensure COVID-19 related measures imposed by states and territories do not prevent the timely changeover of international maritime crews. Further, the report also recommends that the national cabinet design that framework so that states and territories remain compliant with national obligations in the event of future crises that require responses falling under the authority of subnational governments, or states—crises like the one unfolding at ports along the eastern coast of China.

I commend this report to the Senate. I'm grateful to the members of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade for the recognition of the crew change crisis and for their work over the past months to identify and explore the impacts of COVID-19 on our security, defence, industry, diplomacy and vital trade and supply lines. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.