Saving Australian Shipping Jobs

This piece appeared in the Australian Financial Review opinion/editorial pages on 31 July 2001.

Something rotten is happening in Australian politics when the Federal Workplace Relations Minister throws support behind a foreign shipping company's legal bid to replace Australian seafarers with foreign guest workers for Australian coastal routes.

The job of the Australian Government is not to replace Australian jobs. This is about Tony Abbott making good his pledge to be more active in backing employers against unions.

No one is arguing that unions should be above the law. This dispute, which has led to a Canadian shipping company taking unions and officials, including myself to court, is about a foreign company bullying critics into silence about its bid to maximise profits at the expense of Australian interests and Australian jobs.

It is a myth that using vessels crewed with foreign labor makes coastal shipping more cost competitive in the cement industry. To our knowledge in the Australian cement industry consumers have not received price reductions due to foreign flagging of vessels. Rather we are witnessing monopoly rents going offshore to Bahaman tax shelters.

Further, the Australian Shipowners Association has found that our reliance on foreign shipping to carry our goods caused a net deficit of $3 billion in 1999-2000, which amounts to about 9 per cent of our nation's current account deficit. And yet the number of Continuous Voyage Permits and Single Voyage Permits issued by the Government is increasing exponentially each year since 1996.

The Australian Workers' Union has been vocal about supporting Australian coastal shipping because like all unions, we are committed to securing Australian jobs and Australian working conditions. If we do not oppose Australian ships from being conveniently reflagged to avoid Australian taxes and to replace Australian workers with cheap foreign crews and inferior working conditions, where does the erosion of Australian jobs and working conditions end? - foreign crews on domestic flight routes? Foreign workers unloading cement?

Australian crews are highly skilled and efficient. This is why it takes 25 Ukrainian seafarers to do the same work as 17 Australian crew members on the CSL Yarra.

Cabotage - the use of Australian flagged ships carrying Australian cargoes between Australian ports - is also in the national interest. During these insecure times post September 11th the Government has promoted a record defence budget to acknowledge the increased threat to Australian security, yet it fails to address the wider security concerns created when Australian ships are reflagged and staffed with unknown foreign crew. We detain boat people yet would allow thousands of foreign national seafarers into our ports.

In both world wars the merchant ships were requisitioned for troop transports, for hospital ships and for the carriage of cargoes for war service. Merchant navy engineers and seafarers also provided invaluable knowledge and experience to the Royal Australian Navy in the Second World War. Our merchant navy is an inexpensive but vital resource for bolstering our naval fleet at short notice. An island economy such as Australia cannot maintain true economic independence in times of conflict without an Australian-flagged fleet.

Finally, the legal action taken by the foreign-owned CSL this week is simply evidence of its blatant "cherry picking" of Australian laws. More disappointingly, after this week's comment by Tony Abbott, it is with the Australian Government's endorsement.

Put simply, a foreign shipping company can avoid Australian workplace standards and taxes at its convenience, but when it suits the company it uses Australian courts to fight Australian unions protecting Australian jobs.

I am accountable to Australian laws like all Australian citizens and under those laws any allegations against me must first be proved. That means following due process and not the anti-union mantras of a government with a rotten agenda.