Tony Abbott says cruise operator's claim of advice to sack Australian staff 'untrue'
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Version 0 of 1. An Australian cruise operator has hit out at Tony Abbott 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 shipping laws. Related: Bureaucrat advised cruise operator to 'sack crew and hire foreigners', senators told Abbott said of Milby’s allegations: “That is just not true.” On Wednesday after the prime minister’s remarks, Milby did not walk away from his claims. “What I said actually took place, it was said by bureaucrats,” said Milby. “If he wants to accuse me of lying then I take offence at that.” Milby made the claims in a submission to a Senate committee examining a shipping amendment. He will appear at the committee’s next hearing when parliament resumes on Monday, 7 September. NSCA has objected to the shipping bill – introduced by the deputy prime minister and transport minister, Warren Truss – which would mean foreign ships would have to adhere to Australian wages and conditions only if their ships spend more than 183 days in Australian waters. Milby has objected because it allows foreign operators to ply their trade on the north-west Western Australian coast line in the Kimberley for the whole of the tourist season (which is only six months) while paying cheaper foreign wages. Milby, the unions and other shipping companies have said the bill would make Australian ships uncompetitive. But figures in other industries, such as Bell Bay Aluminium, Incitec Pivot and the National Farmers’ Federation, have supported the change on the basis it would bring down their freight costs. Truss’s departmental submission to the Senate committee pinned the blame for high Australian shipping costs on the cost of local labour. “Labour costs are a major contributing factor to the higher freight rates,” it said. “Stakeholders have provided examples demonstrating this. Combined with the higher costs of operating an ageing fleet, ship operators have consistently argued that the higher labour costs have impacted on the international competitiveness of Australian ships.” Abbott said the bill was needed because the Australian coastal shipping fleet halved from 30 ships to 15 ships “under Labor’s watch”. “Costs for Australian shipping increased by almost 65% in the first year of Labor’s changes and the percentage of Australian freight carried by shipping in Labor’s term of office, between 2007 and 2013, dropped from 27% to 17%,” Abbott said. “Labor were absolutely catastrophic for coastal shipping and for jobs in coastal shipping.” But Milby said the changes would risk the jobs of his crew, who were “mostly young” and at the beginning of their career. His company was not interested in lowering wages and conditions for Australian workers as a solution. “I’m trying to protect our crew, our Australian workers who are brilliant,” he said. “If you ask any shipowners, they will tell you Aussie crews are great. We sell an Australian product to overseas and Australian tourists and we go to iconic places, through north-west waters and we developed a lot of this trade. We just want to be able to compete.” Governments had been signalling relaxing the rules for foreign ships over the past few years. He gave as an example, the former transport minister Anthony Albanese’s move to allow temporary permits for foreign ships to work on Australian coasts. “We have been talking about this with various governments for years,” Milby said. “We could see where governments were leaning.” Albanese, Labor’s transport spokesman, said that as an island continent, Australia needed a strong shipping sector for economic, environmental and national security reasons. “National governments understand that it is in the national interest to have a shipping industry,” he said. “That’s why in nations such as the United States, in order to do a freight task domestically from LA to San Francisco or anywhere else around the US coast, the ships have to be US flagged, they have to have US seafarers on board, and indeed, in the United States the ships actually have to be built in the United States.” The current system provided for a preference if an Australian ship was available to be used and also required that, for domestic work, Australian wages and conditions had to be observed. “This legislation before the parliament would remove any preference for Australian-based ships, and secondly would allow for foreign wages to be paid on those ships which are competing with Australian flagged ships,” said Albanese. “It’s no wonder that this has been characterised as WorkChoices on water.” |