The Coalition has been warned by crossbench senators that it will be unable to legislate planned changes to Australia’s shipping laws, with a new report forecasting that the new laws would cause a 93% loss of Australian seafaring jobs.
The government’s proposed legislation would water down wage protections and preferences for Australian crews. 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 move would, the Coalition says, simplify coastal shipping laws and reduce costs for businesses. But Labor, unions and the chairman of a major shipping company have attacked the plan, claiming that it would lead to widespread Australian job losses.
A new report by the Australia Institute has put figures to the proposal, forecasting that just 88 Australian seafarer jobs would remain under the policy change. This represents a 93% slump in the current 1,089-strong workforce.
The report claims that the economic benefit of the move has been overstated, with foreign-owned shipping and companies using bulk freight the main beneficiaries.
A summit convened by the ACTU in Melbourne on Friday featured several senate crossbenchers crucial to the passage of the bill, who stated their opposition.
“There’s no way in hell this will get through,” said independent senator Jacquie Lambie.
“The Liberal and National party has a very, very bad record on this – it does not consult. I’m sick of the born-to-rule mentality. Stop playing politics because this is about national security and we aren’t in a good space with where our shipping is headed. It’s in dire straits.”
The ACTU meeting featured representatives from Labor and the Greens, as well as crossbench senators John Madigan, Ricky Muir and Lambie. Lower house MP Bob Katter also attended.
Lambie said that fellow crossbench senators Nick Xenophon and Glenn Lazarus, who could not attend, were also against the legislation as it stands, meaning the government would be unable to pass the bill in its current form.
“There’s stuff that the industry and union agrees on, the low hanging fruit, that we can knock over and say to [infrastructure minister] Warren Truss ‘let’s get this done’,” she said.
Greens senator Janet Rice said the legislation would trigger a “massive loss of jobs” and have negative flow-on impacts for the environment.
“We’d have all shipping undertaken by crews that don’t know the coastline, low-paid workers who often don’t have the same level of training as Australians do,” she said.
“Everyone acknowledges room for tweaks and changes, whereas this is taking the sledgehammer to it. It seems like an ideological attack on the legislation.”
Muir said he agreed “wholeheartedly” with Rice’s comments, while Madigan said he didn’t want the current laws to be “completely tossed out” as the government proposes.
Tony Abbott was criticised by an Australian cruise operator this week after the prime minister suggested his allegations about departmental advice to sack Australian staff were not true.
A North Star Cruises Australia (NSCA) representative, Bill Milby, alleged a government bureaucrat advised him to sack Australian staff and hire foreign crew on cheaper wages so his True North cruise boat could remain competitive under the Coalition’s proposed new laws. Abbott denied the allegations.
Truss said Australia’s shipping industry had suffered under Labor and without an overhaul of the legislation it would not recover.
The proposed legislation, he said, would “deliver more affordable freight costs for businesses and greater choice between shipping companies, which will lead to better services being provided to Australian industries.
“This means more freight and more efficient services, all of which make Australian products more competitive – internationally and domestically – saving at-risk jobs on land and creating many, many more.”
