Senator SHERRY (Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate)(3.44 p.m.) —I would like Senator Campbell to give a response to this particular matter of ships of shame. As I understand it—and his advisers are here and I would like a response—the MUA has very actively taken up the issue of seafarers who are being ripped off, and I do not use that term in too strong a sense. Many international seafarers are ripped off, and we should be proud of what the MUA has been doing.

The MUA, through various forms of industrial action, has very successfully ensured that where seafarers have been very clearly underpaid—and I have to say the pay is pretty miserable on some of these international vessels—they are paid back pay. I understand there are actually cases on record regarding seafarers and their failure to repay the back pay when they return to their particular country, whether they return on the vessel they arrived on or are flown back for whatever reason.

If they do not repay the back pay the MUA has successfully pursued and gained for the seafarers who have been disadvantaged, who have been oppressed—and I do not often use the term `oppressed' in industrial relations—in some cases they end up in prison. Certainly, they end up without a job, but they can end up in prison.

I would like Senator Campbell to indicate, or get some sort of indication from his advisers, whether the government endorses this sort of approach by international seafaring companies. In what areas, with respect to our international objectives, will action be taken by the government to ensure this sort of behaviour does not go on?