Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Mission to Seafarers, Portland

Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (15:42): Mission to Seafarers, Portland, supports foreign seafarers when they dock in the port of Portland. These international seafarers play a critical role in getting imports into Australia as well as shipping our goods overseas. Throughout the COVID pandemic they have been unable to leave their ship, even to visit the Mission to Seafarers store at the port, a place to relax and buy essential items. Many of these workers have been at sea for months and even years, which has had a huge impact on their mental health. The vast majority of foreign ships docking at Portland have been at sea for at least 17 days, a quarantine in itself of sorts. This minimises the risk of COVID coming into Australia. However, the mission has committed to paying for and helping coordinate vaccinations for those seafarers who remain unvaccinated. Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania have all started relaxing their rules to allow vaccinated seafarers onto the shore, but the Victorian Labor government continues its ban. The Portland Mission to Seafarers tell me they cannot even get a response from the Labor government on this issue.

With our international borders to reopen to vaccinated travellers later this month, the Victorian Labor government needs to allow vaccinated foreign seafarers access to our shores or support them to get vaccinated through the Mission to Seafarers. The Mission to Seafarers in Portland do such a wonderful job of selfless work in looking after the welfare of these foreign workers, so it is only right that we do everything we can to provide the mechanism to safely allow vaccinated seafarers onto our shores. The government needs to show some compassion.