Ausmarine editorial – February 2008
Members of the new Rudd Federal Government have every right to believe they have a mandate for change. Their sweeping victory over their tired and befuddled Liberal predecessors provides them with a brilliant opportunity.
Let us hope that they don't squander it. They won't, if they keep their promises. From the point of view of Australia's maritime industries, shipping, shipbuilding, fisheries and aquaculture, this will be particularly important.
I have in mind Prime Minister Rudd's oft repeated, pre-election promise to cut bloated Canberra bureaucracy and reduce some of the "red tape" impediments to business. As readers of this magazine well know, Australia's marine and maritime industries are being strangled by red tape and bullied and harassed by bureaucrats.
Hopefully, Mr Rudd's ministerial and parliamentary secretary colleagues will have enjoyed a good summer break during which they will have reflected upon the massive and daunting task ahead of them.
The industry sectors covered by this magazine have suffered sorely under a remote unthinking and uncaring Howard Government for 111/2 years. This came as a rather nasty surprise given that most in the maritime industry are natural supporters or at least allies of the "Conservative" side of Parliament.
I have a feeling that the Rudd Government will be similarly good for the marine and maritime sector as was the Hawke Government when it claimed power in 1983. Most in the industry held little hope for it, especially after their disappointment with the Malcolm Fraser-led Liberal/National coalition. The positive approach of ministers such as Peter Morris, John Kerin and John Button soon changed that view. The industry could not believe its good fortune.
Well, despite the brief illumination of the fishing industry under Ian Macdonald, that Labor light was soon extinguished by the negativism of John Howard and his colleagues. Shipping continued to be ignored, shipbuilding, except for Defence, was abandoned; and, the fishing and aquaculture sectors were very actively suppressed.
I had a bad feeling that this would continue under Prime Minister Rudd when we were unable to elicit any idea of Labor's intentions for the fisheries sector from their Shadow Minister Kerry O'Brien. Fortunately Mr Rudd could also see O'Brien's inadequacies and consigned him to the back bench. That, to me, was a very hopeful sign.
The fact is that Australia's marine-based industries have wonderful potential. That potential can be realised if they are just allowed to get on with it. They can then contribute enormously to the nation's economic well being and to the benefit of its social fabric.
With our enormous coastline, our rich – despite what certain scientists contend – marine resources and wonderful tourism assets, we have a lot going for us. Under Howard, this bounty was squandered in the most disgraceful way.
Canberra became the fount of all wisdom. Howard and his ministers unquestioningly accepted bureaucratic "direction". It didn't seem to matter that such direction was based on prejudice rather than sound science or good economics, while departments, especially those in the fisheries and environmental areas, came under the control of people with barely hidden, anti-business agendas. The Howard Government ignored industry's pleading about this.
As a consequence, Australia's fishing industry is a shadow of its former self. Australian-owned cargo ships are practically non-existent. Australia's active commercial shipbuilders have shrunk in number from about 70 in 1996 to about 15 now. Seafood exports have fallen dramatically in real terms while imports of fish and boats have soared.
Howard also developed an overwhelming need to suck up to the Bush administration in the United States. After the 9/11 attacks of 2001 this was manifested in massive spending on US sourced or endorsed weaponry – often against the advice of our military leaders. We are now apparently committed to spending staggering amounts on outdated and inappropriate aircraft and ships. Most of the benefit of those purchases will go offshore.
It is to be hoped that Mr Rudd and his Cabinet colleagues are really awake to the manifest inadequacies of their predecessors. It is to be hoped, also, that they will not be so easily snowed by the out-of-touch Canberra bureaucracy with its too often malevolent hidden agendas.
There is still time to make the significant but achievable changes required to refloat Australia's maritime industries. What is really required is an independent, business-like approach. Government needs to talk with and listen to industry. It must, of course, give fair hearing to the bureaucrats and the environmentalists but it must try to reach balanced decisions.
We must avoid squandering our resources and opportunities ever again. We should chop much of our unnecessary Defence expenditure. We should really listen to those at the coalface. Indulgence in Canberra's usual means of legitimising its malignant actions through "consultation" should cease immediately.
This new Government provides Australia's marine and maritime industries with the best opportunities they have had for over two decades. Let us hope we don't waste them.
