The federal government has announced changes to rules governing the coastal shipping industry that would wind back existing wage protections and preferences for Australian ships and crews, in a move Labor has labelled “WorkChoices on the water”.
The deputy prime minister Warren Truss announced the creation of one single streamlined licence for ships that take cargo between domestic ports.
“This permit will allow Australian and foreign ships to carry goods and passengers on unlimited domestic voyages during the 12 months of the permit,” Truss announced on Wednesday.
Workers aboard non-Australian flagged vessels will only be subject to Australian wages and conditions if the ships trade in Australia for more than 183 days, roughly six months of the yearly permits.
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) said the changes would result in Australian workers being overlooked in favour of cheaper foreign labour, which will no longer be governed by internationally-agreed award rates.
“He’s wiping the local industry out,” the MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said.
Greens senator Adam Bandt said the government was “throwing jobs overboard”.
“We wouldn’t bring in overseas truck drivers to carry goods on the Hume highway at $2 an hour and we shouldn’t allow the same on our shipping lanes,” Bandt said.
Additionally, the reforms state that only ships that exceed the 183-day mark will be required to employ local masters, chief mates or first engineers.
“The government also plans to amend the Australian international shipping register to remove the requirement for a collective agreement between the owner of a vessel and the Seafarers’ Bargaining Unit and the requirement for a vessel to be predominantly engaged in international trading,” Truss said.
The deputy prime minister argued the reforms are necessary to stay competitive in a global industry and “embrace the opportunities that these global connections make possible”.
But Labor warned the reforms, which reduce protections listed in its 2012 coastal trading bill, would jeopardise Australian jobs and sets out the government’s agenda for industrial reform in other sectors.
“This is WorkChoices on water,” the opposition leader Bill Shorten told reporters on Wednesday. “We see this government’s predilection for lowering employment conditions in Australia.”
“What this government hopes is that because ships are beyond the breakers and that people can’t see every employment condition on a ship, they can get away with seeing third world conditions employed on ships which carry cargoes around the Australian shoreline. This is unacceptable.”
“When you are working in Australia, whether it be on a building site or on a road, or on a rail system, or on a ship, you should be subject to the same wages and conditions. It’s as simple as that. To undermine that risks that being transferred onto other industries,” the shadow infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese said.
Crumlin said the deregulation was “reckless and ill-considered” and that it had national security implications.
“It is impossible to filter international citizens in the same way as Australian workers,” Crumlin told Guardian Australia. “You can’t properly screen a Ukrainian or Filipino seafarer.”
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has welcomed the reforms, saying that they will make the industry more competitive.
“Container rates from Brisbane to Melbourne are almost twice as much as from Singapore to Melbourne and it is cheaper to ship sugar to Australian coastal ports from Thailand than it is from Queensland,” the director of economics and industry policy, John Osborn, said.
“It’s time to open up our oceans’ highways and not let the coastal shipping industry sink under the weight of red tape and protectionist dogma.”
The National Farmers’ Federation said the reforms will help struggling primary producers.
“The current regulations are restrictive. Farmers and suppliers don’t have the right to choose who carries their goods around the coast, so they can’t negotiate a fair price for the task,” president Brent Finlay said. “This is important economic reform, aimed at lifting Australia’s competitiveness and improving the profitability of the agriculture sector.”
Around 50 unionists protested outside the Sydney hotel where Truss was making his announcement on the reforms.
Mark Lennon from Unions New South Wales said: “We have to say to the Abbott government that they have to stop using these backdoor attacks on decent jobs’ wages conditions of all Australians, including seafarers.”
A merchant seaman, Jed, who declined to give Guardian Australia his surname, said:“I see no reason why Australian jobs should be sold out for the sake of profit.”
“It [the reforms] opens up a door via legislation for companies to breach [pay rates and go for] the lowest common denominator. You end up with ships that you can’t compete with. For example, Filipino seafarers get paid as little as two bucks an hour,” he said.
Legislation on the reforms is currently being drafted, and is expected to be completed by the end of June.
Australian ports have historically been the scene of major industrial relations showdowns, with the 1998 waterfront dispute affecting the output of four of Australia’s biggest ports.
About 5,000 foreign cargo ships visit Australian ports each year, making 14,000 port calls, but according to the government the fleet of major Australian registered ships with coastal licences has fallen from 30 in 2006 to 15 today.
Australian ports handled more than 101m tonnes of coastal freight in 2012-13.
