WorkChoices at sea

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.”