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I would like to turn to another area of the minister's responsibility highlighted in the second reading amendment that I have referred to and that is the issue of maritime security. You actually need to have security for all modes of transport in this country. If we are to have the confidence of the travelling public and the community in general we need a comprehensive transport security package. I have raised the issue of maritime security and defence in this House before and I will continue to do so until the minister takes action. As I have said before in this House, it is interesting that, at a time when tightening up port security is the focus of the IMO and shipping nations around the world, we continue to offer unfettered access to our coasts and ports. When countries around the world are trying to find out who is on their coast and what they are up to, we do not seem to care. Between March 1996 and 30 April 1999, 263 deserters from foreign ships were reported by the Australian Customs Service—148 were located. These missing people are the ones we know about but, with the open slather visa arrangements granted to foreign ships, there could be tens, hundreds or thousands more. How do we know? We do not know because the minister makes no effort to find out who is working on our coast. As the government continues to grant unlimited access to the coastal trade, the management of large numbers of foreign seafarers operating semipermanently on the Australian coast will become a nightmare. We have no idea who is there, we have no idea where they are going and we have no idea how many actually stay. It seriously compromises our border security, and it also compromises our coastal environment. In November we saw five separate extremely serious incidents involving flag of convenience vessels. On 15 November, the Hanjin Pennsylvania , a brand new container ship travelling under a Liberian flag exploded and burnt off Colombo with one fatality. On 18 November, the Prestige , a 26-year-old oil tanker travelling under a Bahamian flag sank off the northern Spanish coast resulting in an oil slick estimated to be twice the size of the slick from the Exxon Valdez . On 24 November, the Gaz Poem , a 26-year-old LPG carrier travelling under a Panamanian flag was burning out of control off Hong Kong. On 24 November, the Tasman Sea , a 22-year-old oil tanker travelling under a Maltese flag was involved in a collision off China, resulting in an oil slick. That ship was in Australian waters in May last year. On 26 November, the Hual Europe , a two-year-old car carrier travelling under a Bahamian flag was burning out of control after running aground near Tokyo. That ship was actually in Australian waters in September. It went to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne—near your home town, Mr Deputy Speaker Jenkins. This ship wandered around our coast—but that is okay; we don't need to worry about it! This roll call of disaster signals a dire warning about the Howard government's liberal issue of single and continuous voyage permits to FOC vessels, allowing them in on our coastal trade. We believe on this side of the House that we need a world-class Australian shipping industry, not cheaper shipping costs at the expense of our environment and security. This position is a reasonable view to be held by a nation that has the fifth largest maritime task in the world and a coastline of some 37,000 kilometres. But it is not a view held or respected by the minister. Instead, we get some very interesting comments from the minister, such as those that came out today from the minister or the minister's spokesperson in an interview with Lloyd's List DCN . They suggested that the opposition's stance on flag of convenience vessels—the particularly solid stance we have about protecting our coast, our environment and our jobs—is a `racist view' on international shipping. The opposition apparently has a racist view on international shipping. That is the best this minister can come up with. It would be laughable if it were not so serious.