Mr CONROY (Shortland) (17:34): We've avoided another—
Mr Albanese: Crisis!
Mr CONROY: crisis—a parliamentary crisis! This amendment, and the series of amendments that the member for Grayndler is moving, goes to trying to restore some semblance of integrity to the coastal shipping and trade regime around general licences versus temporary licences. What we've seen under this government is an attack on the general-licences approach and the issuing of temporary licences any time they feel like it, which is really destroying the Australian shipping industry.
This is a government that is intent on putting Australian seafarers out of work. There is no sugar-coating it. This is a government that is intent on putting Australian seafarers out of work. You just have to see what they did around the MV Portland and the CSL Melbourne. They issued temporary licences to replace Australian crewed ships doing very regular work. For 27 years the MV Portland shipped alumina from Western Australia to the Portland aluminium smelter—for 27 years. By any definition it was a regular trip, but this government issued a temporary licence so that that company could frogmarch off Australian workers and replace them with foreign flagged vessels on dodgy temporary licences. They did the same thing for CSL Melbourne. They put Australian seafarers out of work on shipping routes that were, by definition, regular. You knew how many shipments of alumina would go from Western Australia to Portland and how many from Gladstone to Newcastle to the Tomago smelter. Every year it was as regular as anything. But this government put those Australian seafarers out of work because they're intent on destroying that industry.
You don't have to take my word for it. You only have to read the regulatory impact statement that accompanied their 2015 legislation effort. Their own regulatory impact statement stated that all the savings associated with that legislation came from putting 1,000 of the 1,100 Australian seafarers out of work. Rarely has a conservative government been so honest in its attack on Australian workers. That RIS, if it had got through parliament, would have put out of work 90 per cent of Australian seafarers. That's what they intend to do by continuing to weaken the protections against temporary licences by massively expanding the tolerance limits allowed when they issue temporary licences. That's the nub of this amendment and the nub of this bill. That's why Labor's amendments must be supported.
It's not just about Australian jobs and maintaining an Australian industry. We're a maritime nation, and there are huge national security implications in making sure that we've got an adequate Australian merchant maritime work force. There are also huge environmental issues. June this year was the 11th anniversary of when the Pasha Bulker washed up on Nobbys Beach in Newcastle during a storm. It was a foreign flagged and foreign crewed vessel that had ignored the warnings of the harbourmaster to move away from the coast of Newcastle. We've also seen foreign flagged and foreign crewed vessels ignoring warnings to move away from the Great Barrier Reef. They've literally run aground and damaged sections of the Great Barrier Reef, imperilling a $9 billion tourism industry that employs 68,000 Australians, all because the government wants to undermine Australian vessels and replace Australian seafarers with foreign workers on $2 a day on flag-of-convenience vessels. What's the next step? Having Australian trucks on our highways replaced by foreign trucks, staffed by foreign workers paid $2 a day? This is just the logical extension of that.
As the shadow minister's already foreshadowed, we're open to discussions with the superyacht industry about how we facilitate the growth of that industry, but you don't do it by further attacks on Australia's shipping industry, further attacks on our proud maritime tradition. So I urge that Labor's amendments be supported. I urge this government to go back to the drawing board. I acknowledge that the minister in the past has acknowledged that we need a bipartisan settlement. We need a bipartisan policy solution that will survive changes of government. That is the only way you're going to get investment in new Australian ships, staffed by Australian seafarers. But this bill is not the way to do it, so I urge them to go back to the drawing board and come back with something that is actually workable and fair and that will promote Australian seafarers.