As Australia faces an uncertain future, there is a growing voice from the Unions, Industry, and across the major parties supporting the need for a national maritime reset. Specifically, to do with both the Merchant and Navy Fleets. The former Labor Leader Bill Shorten has been a consistent supporter of the need to regrow and vitalise the Merchant Marine. His father, a marine engineer born in Tyneside, England, 1929 - although estranged in later years - imbued in the young Bill a sense of the sea and service. Bill Shorten served two years in the Australian Army (Res). He went to the 2019 election with a plan to build an Australian fleet: More ships got sunk on the Australian station in World War Two than we have now registered to Australia. Not all those ships were Australian. But you can take my point.
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