MUA: Allseas Nazi Scandal

A company involved in Australia's biggest gas project is embroiled in a scandal in Europe over its support for a convicted Nazi war criminal.

Allseas, a Dutch-owned pipeline and maritime engineering company is a contractor on Chevron's $30 billion Gorgon gas field project off the West Australian coast.

But it is an Allseas ship currently decommissioning Shell oil rigs in the North Sea that has landed the company in hot water, with an Australian Jewish group joining international condemnation.

The ship Pieter Schelte was named after the deceased father of Edward Heerema, the current owner of Allseas.

Pieter Schelte Heerema was a pioneer of the offshore engineering business but in his earlier life a Waffen SS member and Nazi.

Heerema fought with the viscious Waffen SS, commanded by Heinrich Himmler, and later became a director of a Dutch company that rounded up labourers for the Nazi war effort.

He spent 14 months in prison for war crimes but moved to Venezuela after his release, where he supported former SS men who had escaped from Europe after the German defeat.

In the 1970s, he took interest in the the Adolf Hitler diaries – later proven to be forgeries - in the hope he could prove that Hitler did not order the Holocaust.

Allseas has resisted changing the name of the Pieter Schelte despite pressure from Jewish groups, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and unions.

But after criticism from the British government, the company has backed down. British Energy secretary Ed Davey said the name of the ship was "wholly inappropriate and offensive".

Allseas has won plaudits in Parliament from the Coalition for its union-busting approach to workplace arrangements. In 2012, it won a landmark Federal Court ruling that its full-time ship crew were employed outside the migration zone of Australia's coastine and did not require visas.

As a consequence, the pay and conditions afforded the Australian maritime workforce did not apply to its crew until Labor brought in a new law - the very last piece of legislation passed by the Gillard government, to enforce a visa regime for at-sea workers.

Paddy Crumlin, president of the International Transport Workers' Federation and national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, welcomed the backdown but said it was "utterly shameful" that a convicted Nazi war criminal had been honoured in the first place.

"To even countenance honouring a Waffen-SS officer just shows how twisted, arrogant and out-of-touch Allseas management is," he said.

"It is worth noting that Allseas has a long history of seeking to drive down safety standards and working conditions for seafarers the world over.

"It is this group that the Australian government is taking its lead from when it comes to driving changes to its offshore visa arrangements."

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Teachers profoundly disturbed by children in detention report

NSW Teachers Federation 12 February 2015

Teachers in NSW are profoundly disturbed by the findings of the Human Rights Commission’s report The Forgotten Children, and are shocked that the Prime Minister has dismissed the report as a ‘blatantly partisan political exercise’ and stated that the Commission “should be ashamed of itself.”

NSW Teachers Federation President, Maurie Mulheron said:

“Teachers support the Commission’s recommendations, including the call for a Royal Commission into the practice of putting asylum seeker children into mandatory detention, having found that “immigration detention is a dangerous place for children.

“The findings of the report make for chilling reading, and no humane person could dismiss and ignore them. They are based on medical evidence.

“The Commission found that between January 2013 and March 2014, there were:

• 233 assaults involving children in detention
• 33 reported incidents of sexual assault, with the majority involving children
• 128 children who harmed themselves
• 27 children in voluntary starvation or hunger strikes
• Over 100 children on Christmas Island denied education for over a year
• “The failure of the Commonwealth to provide education to primary school aged children on Christmas Island between July 2013 and July 2014 is a breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“For children in the care of the government to be experiencing self -harm, abuse, trauma, post-traumatic stress and moderate to severe health disorders such as incontinence and mental health issues is cause for national shame.

“It is an outrage that 330 children remain in indefinite detention and more than 167 babies have been born in detention within the past two years.

“NSW Teachers Federation members are committed to providing the best possible care and education for more than 750,000 students in NSW public schools. We believe children in detention deserve the same, and call on the Federal Government to act urgently to redress this situation.”

Unions NSW: Medicare Join Statement

Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, Medicare, has ensured world-leading public health care is accessible for all, for over 30 years. The availability of bulk-billing has delivered a health system that is more cost-effective and equitable than in many comparable OECD countries.

General practice is at the cornerstone of a healthy society. Access to quality general practice is essential both for effective health outcomes and for reducing the flow-on costs of illness across the rest of the health system. Public health care must be valued and funded accordingly.

In 2014, the Liberal-National Government’s proposed $7 Medicare GP co-payment was roundly rejected by the Australian community. Yet the government’s ‘Plan B’ optional co-payment proposal, unveiled last December, will be more detrimental to Medicare than the original plan. Both versions share the same objective: to erode bulk-billing rates and push the costs of public health care onto individual patients.

The privatisation of the Medicare payment system could put 23.8 million personal health records into private sector hands. The Medicare system should be universal, taxpayer funded and continue to be administered by the public sector. 

Health industry groups, health professionals, academics and trade unions reject the notion that forcing costs onto patients will “strengthen Medicare”. The argument that Medicare bulk-billing should only be accessible to concession-card holders, children under 16 years and those in aged-care facilities is also widely opposed. If bulk-billing is reduced to a residual ‘safety-net’ rather than a universal right, the quality of health care for those unable to pay will inevitably decline. As advocates for the delivery of a robust and equitable health system, we vigorously oppose any measures that would lead to the creation of a two-tiered, Americanised health care system. 

Paying for health care through the taxation system is the most equitable, efficient and cost-effective way to fund the system. Those who can afford to are required to contribute more. Those on lower incomes are not excluded from accessing quality health care.

Contrary to the Liberal-National Government’s claims, the current Medicare funding model is sustainable. It is in fact the Government’s own policy proposals which threaten the viability of Australia’s universal health system.

By introducing a policy to firstly cut and then freeze the Medicare rebate, the government’s ‘Plan B’ optional co-payment would force increasing numbers of GPs to abandon bulk-billing and charge individual patients up-front fees. This would drive up medical costs and generate deeply unfair social outcomes. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services will bear the costs of the copayment and indexation freezes for clients. In doing so, they put at risk the sustainability and viability of the service delivery model which has contributed to some of the biggest gains in Closing the Gap. 

Under a system of fewer GPs offering bulk-billing, people on low incomes, those with chronic medical conditions, as well as those from socially disadvantaged communities would find it increasingly difficult to access affordable, quality health care. Aboriginal people fare much worse than other Australians against all health indicators, with complex medical needs including high levels of multiple chronic illnesses and lower life expectancy. Experiencing disproportionately lower incomes than the rest of the population, Aboriginal people who do not fit the proposed exemption categories in the revised policy are increasingly unlikely to seek the health care they need.

We call on the Federal Government and the Minister for Health to immediately abandon all plans to increase co-payments and “price signals” in Australia’s health care system. 

Today, Australians already pay the second-highest level of out-of-pocket health costs in the OECD. Rather than increase the financial burden borne by some of the most unwell in our society – those who are predominantly also the poorest – we ask the government to develop policies to secure the future of universal health care in Australia. 

The principles of universal, well-funded public health care need to be extended and secured, not undermined. 

This joint statement is delivered by the following organisations:

• NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association 
• Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation 
• Save Medicare Sydney 
• Doctors Reform Society 
• Community & Public Sector Union 
• Australian Services Union 
• Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association 
• National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation 
• Welfare Rights Centre (NSW) 
• Health Services Union 
• Unions NSW 
• Australian Men’s Health Forum 
• GetUp! 
• Health Consumers NSW Public Health Association of Australia

CFMEU: Accident pay provisions confirmed by Full Bench of Fair Work Commission

Coal mineworkers have had welcome news, now that the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has published their decision and reasons for decision in regard to the coal industry Award's Accident Pay provisions.

Yesterday's release of the decision is the result of years of hard work by our union to remove the ‘sunset clause’ from the accident pay provisions.

Our accident pay standards are now secure and here to stay as part of the core conditions of the coal mining industry. Accident make-up pay will continue to be a feature of our conditions with the employer required to “top up” Workers Compensation payments to the level the worker would normally have earned if they were not off work due to a workplace injury or illness.

Our accident pay scheme provides for the most generous level of protection of any Award based scheme – with 78-weeks coverage, compared with 52-or-26 weeks in other industries.

All Union Officials and Lodges should ensure that the removal of the ‘sunset clause’ should be repeated in all Enterprise Agreements.

ACTU: Abbott’s only plan for jobs is to save his own

12 February, 2015 | Media Release

Today’s 13-year-high unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent shows the only jobs plan Tony Abbott has is to save his own.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the impact of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s policies is clear in today’s labour force figures.

“They are slowing the economy and increasing unemployment,” said Ms Kearney.

“This is the highest unemployment rate since June 2002 yet the Abbott Government has absolutely no plan to create jobs.

“All we are hearing from Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey is cuts, cuts, cuts.

“This is a government that is blinded by ideology – they are obsessed with passing their unfair budget cuts despite all the economic evidence that they are taking Australia completely in the wrong direction.”

The figures show Australia’s unemployment rate is now higher that the United States (5.7%), the United Kingdom (5.8%) and New Zealand (5.7%).

“Australia came through the global financial crisis in better shape than most comparable economies – yet the Abbott Government’s budget cuts and economic policies has created higher unemployment here than in many of those countries.”

Ms Kearney said the Abbott Government has no economic credibility left.

“Not only are these figures bad but they are forecast to get even worse,” Ms Kearney said.

“The Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest statement said it expects unemployment to peak higher and later than it previously forecast, while the Government’s mid-year update predicted 6.5 per cent unemployment by June this year - and we are already at 6.4 per cent in January.”

Ms Kearney said this is the worst possible time for further budget cuts.

“The Abbott Government must act to stimulate the economy and boost employment instead, and should do this by bringing forward infrastructure investment.

“The longer unemployment remains this high, the worse the social and economic outlook will be for Australia.

“There is a real risk we will see long-term structural unemployment developing, which will have significant social and economic costs. 

“Sadly for Australian workers, the Abbott Government’s agenda is based on cuts to wages and conditions and no support for Australian jobs.”