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

Yesterday the International Transport Workers Federation, the ITF, launched its Nowhere to Hide campaign. They're announcing it in the parliament today, but they actually kicked it off in the Port of Newcastle last night. It's a week of action targeting shipowners and agents that systematically steal the wages of vulnerable seafarers aboard the cargo ships that deliver more than 95 per cent of the goods which Australian communities depend on. I know this because we've been talking about it for many years. I have done no less than, I think, six inquiries into wage theft around our ports and around our shores in this nation. This was under government after government, nonstop, and all through the exploitation of the temporary voyage permits that were being issued and the lack of enforcement—until now.

The Robbed at sea report, published by the Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work in 2022, set out the systematic exploitation of vulnerable international seafarers working in Australian waters. It found that 70 per cent of ships carrying imports and exports failed to meet minimum international standards for wage payment. And $38 million in stolen wages was recovered over a 10-year period by the ITF Inspectorate conducting spot checks at Australian ports.

Flag-of-convenience vessels are usually registered in low-wage, developing countries with limited power to resist exploitation by unethical shipowners, contractors and subcontractors. This action will target every ship entering any New South Wales port this week, 13 to 20 June. I'm proud to officially launch the campaign this afternoon, as I said. The campaign is built on the experience of the ITF Inspectorate in Australia and the research commission that published the Robbed at sea report. It will target wage theft, refusal of shore leave, failure to repatriate seafarers to their countries of origin, denial of medical care and bullying and harassment of vulnerable workers. I'm happy to say that the ITF will also target flag-of-convenience vessels registered overseas but operating in Australian waters to ensure compliance with the coastal trading act and the Fair Work Act and gather further evidence to support the Robbed at sea report recommendations to government for improving the working and living conditions aboard cargo and coastal trading vessels operating in Australian waters.

I would like to congratulate the Maritime Union of Australia and my very dear friends National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and Assistant Secretary Jamie Newlyn and my very, very dear and close friend Christy Cain. He's the secretary of the CFMMEU and, I am proud to say, a very good friend of mine. He will be here today as well. I also want to congratulate Ian Bray. Ian, Christy and I go back some 25 years, when we were all young roosters in the union movement, me with the TWU and Christy and Ian with the MUA. They were both very well-respected and highly regarded seafarers before they stepped up to the next stage in their lives and became magnificent leaders of the MUA, and they are still very active today.

But guess where we get some pushback? Guess who want to push back about looking after exploited foreign seafarers? It comes down to the same usual suspects. They won't admit it, but I'll call them out. You can guess who they'll be because they are the same corporations and greedy employers who want everything they can get for them and their members as long as no-one else gets a fair crack. These are the same ones that are opposing the Albanese government's 'same job, same pay' legislation that I have been rabbiting on and banging on about for many years. It's all the same ones.

There's the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Make no mistake: their members don't want to pay the right money to get freight shipped around this nation, but, by crikey, they'll make sure that it's taken off the hides of exploited foreign seafarers. They won't talk about that out loud, will they? I'd like them to.

What about the National Farmers Federation, those paragons of virtue? I have chaired the agriculture committee in this place for 15 of the last 18 years, and I'm the first one to say that farmers, food producers and fibre producers must be remunerated. They must make a good living. But—oh, no!—it can't be passed along the supply chain. God forbid our road transport industry, shipping industry and rail industry should get paid as long as their members are paid properly. I have nothing against the farmers. That's why 'NFF' stands for 'no family farms'. You can defend that, Mr Mahar. Knock yourself out. You know where to find me.

Then there's the Master Builders Australia. Oh, my God! We can't have the building companies paying the right rates, can we, as long as they can make a heck of a lot of money off the backs of Australian workers? (Time expired)