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EXPOSED: Unlicensed ships on our coast
Foreign ships trading on the Australian coast illegally
Flag of convenience vessels have been carrying Australian cargo on the coast without a licence, International Transport Workers Federation inspectors have uncovered.
“We have found breaches of the Fair Work Act with crew not getting award rates as required when working the coast,” said ITF Australia Coordinator Ian Bray. “We would raise the crew complaint with the Fair Work Ombudsman, and they would say they were unable to investigate because the ship didn’t have a temporary licence!”
So lax is the Australian government’s policing of the temporary licence system, it appears many ships no longer apply for a licence, or display their licences, while working the domestic shipping trade.
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is not enforcing the Act, the ITF contends.
“We stumbled on it,” said Bray. “When we brought the matter to their attention, they said they knew nothing of the practice.”
The department has since requested the ITF provide details of breaches.
“We are going to shine a light on the temporary licence regime,” said Bray. “We have evidence companies don’t even apply for a licence now. We’ve uncovered cases in the past year, where we’ve found the ship could not even verify it had a licence to trade on the coast. We are seeing this time and time again. The companies are not displaying the licence in accordance with the Act, or they haven’t even bothered to apply for one.”
One example is the Marshall Islands Flag of Convenience container ship MV Wide Hotel.
Crew on board complained to ITF Inspector Matt Purcell in July 2020 when the ship arrived in Melbourne. They said their vessel had been trading between the ports of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane since May. But they had not been paid their cabotage bonus on the last trip. Officials at the Fair Work Ombudsman said they did not have a licence.
“The ship used to have a licence under a different name,” said ITF Australia deputy coordinator Matt Purcell. “The crew say it doesn’t have a licence, Fair Work says it doesn’t have a licence and the Singaporean owner says it doesn’t have a licence. But crew produced documentation showing it is doing the coastal trade, taking containers from one Australian port to another. It’s been with Fair Work 12 months now and we haven’t heard anything about what they are going to do about it.”
Bray said with only four ITF inspectors across 44 Australian ports, what they have uncovered to date was likely to be only the tip of the iceberg. “Department officials now want to sit down with us and discuss the breaches,” said Bray. “We are going to take them up on this.”
He stressed it was up to the department to ensure ships complied with the Act.
“We are not here to do their job,” said Bray. “Our job is to look after the welfare of international seafarers on our coast and get Australian seafarers back up the gangway.”
Bray said the talks would enable the ITF to show the authorities where the gaps in the temporary licence regime were likely to exist. He would also be making some suggestions to ensure better compliance.
“We are going to be asking them what they are going to do about it,” he said. •
– Ian Bray
BodyOverboard
Union calls for crew COVID tests and vaccinations as body washes up on beach and pandemic ship docks in Australia
The body of a Filipino seafarer washes up on a beach in Vanuatu. His crewmates, all but one, test positive to COVID-19.
The Inge Kosan gas tanker had arrived in Port Botany from a pandemic outbreak in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on 31 March before leaving for Port Vila the next day.
Not since the Ruby Princess debacle has the threat of the virus entering Australia by ship got a beep on anyone’s radar. Anyone except maritime workers, that is, who work those ships night and day.
MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin wrote to National Cabinet and health ministers on 20 April – warning of the significant public health threat.
“We are calling for the introduction of rapid COVID testing of all crew on foreign shipping,” said Crumlin. “We ask for priority vaccinations for seafarers travelling through Australian ports. Australian stevedoring and maritime workers should immediately go into isolation following any contact with crew who test positive. Australian maritime workers should be designated key workers and moved to the top of the vaccination rollout.”
On 4 May, after union talks with the Health Department, waterside workers, seafarers and port workers were given access to the Phase 1a Pfizer rollout.
Union demands for rapid COVID testing, vaccination and health support for all international crew arriving in Australian ports still stand.
Crumlin said that like the Ruby Princess, the Inge Kosan had exposed the seriously flawed COVID biosecurity measures in place at Australian ports.
The Ruby Princess breach led to Australia’s first COVID outbreak – 900 infections and 28 deaths.
“We haven’t learned from the debacle,” said Crumlin. “COVID testing taking place only if a ship self-declares symptoms, is completely flawed and needs to be urgently overhauled.
“Had testing taken place when the Inge Kosan berthed in Port Botany in April, the COVID cases onboard would have been immediately identified and the seafarers would have received medical care – potentially saving a man’s life.”
The union is calling for a full investigation into the death of the seafarer.
“There are serious questions that must be answered,” he said. “How did his body come to be washed up on a beach in Vanuatu? The Inge Kosan recently left an Australian port and was carrying Australian gas. Australian has an obligation to get to the bottom of his death. “Today, on International Workers’ Memorial Day, we have a seafarer who will never return home to his family and friends in the Philippines,” he said. “His family deserve answers as to how he died and what could have been done to prevent his death.” •
FLAG OF On board a CONVENIENCE
Ten Australian seafarers relieve foreign crew and set sail in international waters
“It was so beautiful to be back at sea,” said Victorian bosun Max Ward. “Just to get away from it all. Five weeks without social media, no email, nothing but the ocean.”
Max is one of 10 Australian seafarers who went up the gangway to crew two Flag of Convenience ships this year.
Both times the Australians stepped up after foreign crew wanted off. Both times the International Transport Workers Federation uncovered abuse. Both times Australian port state control stepped in and confirmed breaches of the Maritime Labour Convention.
The case of the Marshall Islands bulk carrier MV Sincere was one of the worst Matt Purcell, ITF deputy coordinator has come across in his 25 years in the job.
“The Indonesian crew had only been on the ship a month and they wanted off,” he said. “They were under a constant barrage of abuse and racial vilification from the eastern European officers. They won’t try the same crap on our guys.”
The seven Indonesian crew wrote to ship manager Uniteam Marine refusing to sail to the next port of Eden. They asked to be repatriated.
Fanny Arhandika Trisha, one of the seafarers, said he had been at sea for a decade and never encountered the abuse and overwork he was subjected to on the MV Sincere. The captain treated him and his crew mates like animals, he said.
Matt said it would have cost the shipowner more to fly in another crew, owing to pandemic-related travel restrictions, than pay an Australian crew.
After the best part of a day ringing around the union found six unemployed Australian seafarers – one from Tasmania, three Victorians and two from Newcastle – keen to take on the challenge. All had been out of work for some time. And while it was a Flag of Convenience vessel, the ITF got them Australian wages based on the current ASP Agreement including 14% superannuation, Day
for Day leave, paid quarantine, and repatriation.
The bulk carrier had brought in a cargo of cement to discharge in Melbourne at the CSR plant. Its next cargo was a load of logs at Eden bound for Korea.
Max had been looking for work for a year and he relished being back.
“Just doing some proper seamanship was something,” he said. “All the skills you thought you’d forgotten but had to use again. We also learnt new skills. We’d never lashed logs before.”
Max was a veteran of international waters and was ready to adapt to working on a foreign ship. “I’m used to being at sea a long time,” he said. “The ship was only 10 years old, but a bit run down.”
The Australian crew were surprised to find the Europeans did not work Saturday and Sunday. Their contract was based on a 40-hour-week. They didn’t allocate a lookout at night.
“So, we all did the lookouts,” said Max. “We all worked as a team seven days a week. They asked why are you here? But by law you’ve got to have a lookout at night.”
On route the crew sailed through a typhoon. Max and the Australian team made sure the timber was properly lashed before the storm hit. He had sailed through typhoons before.
In the mess room, the Europeans smoked at the table – something unheard of under Australian health regulations.
The agent in Eden failed to get the Australian crew their Covid tests clearance. So, when the vessel arrived in Korea it was ordered out to anchor.
“We were warned anyone caught on the wharf would go to prison,” said Max.
The crew change was done by launch with everyone disembarking down the pilot ladder. But the new Burmese crew came on the day before. With no cabins or beds, they slept on the floor in the alley ways and the mess room – 19 seafarers.
Max and his crew mates then spent quarantine in a pub in Qatar with 120 seafarers from all around the world.
“They all had a different story to tell,” said Max. “Some had been trying
Loading logs at Eden, before setting sale into international waters, bosun Max Ward and his Australian crew mates proudly show off their union badge. to get off their ships over 12 months. So many countries don’t even allow a crew change. Australia was one of them.”
The second vessel the ITF got ASP to manage, went smoother.
The MT High Challenge took on four Australian ratings in Melbourne before sailing for Malaysia and Singapore where they paid off. The Australians got the job after four of the crew were over contract and demanded their right of repatriation. “With both ships, people went on board, did the job and got paid. It worked,” said Matt Purcell. “It’s good to get out-of-work Australians a job. That’s what it’s all about. I think more of it will happen in the future.”
On August 21st ITF Australia Coordinator Ian Bray reported the crews of the MV Sincere and the MT High Challenge had both returned safely to Australia and thanked Matt, assistant Sandra Burnell and branch secretaries Mick Cross and Shane Stevens. Both crews arrived in Brisbane within 24 hours of each other for their 14-day quarantine. “I’d do it again, of course,” said Max back home in Gaffney’s Creek, regional Victoria, more shaken by the recent earthquake than his experience at sea. “I’d do it tomorrow. I enjoyed it. I prefer that to the Melbourne to Tassie run any day.” •
Australian coal to China trade standoff highlights how Australia has lost control of its exports and supply chain
The video went viral in maritime circles. Captain Timur films himself arguing on the phone with the ship’s agent off the port of Caofeidian, China.
“Do you mean that person will die? Because you will wait for authorities to permit to land him?” he asks.
Captain Timur has a medical emergency on board. His chief cook, a Chinese national, is vomiting blood. The ill man is filmed hunched in his cabin, blood-stained tissues littering the floor.
“I have called all available agents, charterers, owners. The response I got from them is shocking,” Captain Timur says.
The agent says it is not possible to bring the chief cook ashore. They must wait until the office opens the next morning and apply for permission from the local authorities.
“So, who is responsible if this man dies?” Captain Timur asks. “We need to bypass all those things and take him directly to a hospital.”
The captain’s message for the government officials of the People’s Republic of China is simple: “You are murderers, you kill people.”
But his indignation and rage are not just directed towards the Chinese. The cook’s plight is being played out around the world as nations close their borders during the pandemic induced crew crisis.
“We are seafarers, spending our lives on board in order to bring goods to your house ... what do we get? We are not even allowed to go ashore. We are not allowed to be ill ... we just have to die,” Captain Timur said.
Caofeidian has both coal and container terminals. Captain Timur does not identify his ship. We do not know if it is one of dozens of vessels off the Chinese coast loaded with banned Australian coal, wine or beef exports. Whether the chief cook was caught up in a political stoush between Australia and China or was simply one of an estimated 300,000 seafarers stranded in a pandemic.
The breakdown in relations between Australia and China over the past year has seen China block Australian exports of coal, cotton, lobsters, timber and meat while also levying antidumping duties on Australian wine and barley. And, as Professor Percy Allen, former NSW Treasury Secretary, pointed out in the Australian Financial Review (“Let’s admit we targeted China first” 3 February 2021) Australia has blocked more than 100 Chinese imports, banned telecoms company Huawei from the 5G network and barred China from investing even in “non-strategic” Australian industries such as dairy and construction.
At the height of the coal dispute, Bloomberg cited 66 bulk carriers loaded with $500M in Australian coal, most off the northeast ports of Jingtang and Caofeidian – ships that could not go anywhere.
The ships are caught in a Catch 22 – unable to offload their cargo or sail to another port.
Chinese importers have refused to on-sell their cargo to other ports at discount prices. Under free on board charter, a ship owner cannot order the master to deviate to a port for a crew change. The vessel could be arrested if he did.
“China is a primary controller of international shipping,” said Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. “China understands the importance of supply chains. That’s why all those ships are anchored off China unable to go anywhere. Beijing says, ‘We control the supply chain, we have ownership’.”
Australia has no control because it has outsourced its trade to the Flag of Convenience fleet.
“We don’t control the cargo. So, if there is any geopolitical stress then immediately China shuts down our trade to show Australia ‘you don’t control shipping, we do’.”
The disruption of Australia’s coal exports worth $54 billion in 2020 is also a national security issue.
The National Secretary was a keynote speaker at the Supply Chain Sovereignty Forum in Canberra in March. The forum, facilitated by Senator Glenn Sterle, included large supply chain industry players such as Pacific National, Maritime Industry Australia Limited, ANL, Stolt Australia alongside representatives of shadow Labor ministers and crossbenchers.
On the MUA team was Assistant National Secretary Jamie Newlyn, MUA National Officer Mich-Elle Myers and policy adviser Rod Pickette.
In his presentation the national secretary linked supply chain and sovereignty issues across transport modes in the context of geopolitical regional issues and the pandemic’s impact on Australia’s supply chain.
“The real story is Australia has given away any control of shipping in an area of real interest like our iron ore and coal trades,” said Crumlin.
Shipping, Crumlin stresses, is the nation’s ocean conveyor belts and we have lost control. “We’ve outsourced to the FOC fleet,” he said. “Buyers control the shipping. China has shut down our coal trade to show Australia ‘you don’t control shipping, we do’. Iron ore could be next. That’s the story. It’s geopolitical. It might also be hurting China’s own state-owned corporations, but geopolitics are more important than short term economic pain.”
The Maritime Union contends
“We are seafarers, spending our lives on board in order to bring goods to your house ... what do we get? We are not allowed to be ill ... we just have to die,” - Captain Timur
– Paddy Crumlin
“China is a primary controller of international shipping, China understands the importance of supply chains. That’s why all those ships are anchored off China unable to go anywhere” – Paddy Crumlin
Australia must control its own ships in crucial trades.
“The point is, if you run your own ships and have an Australian flag on a ship, then that’s part of Australia, that’s Australian territory. Flags like Panama or Liberia aren’t going to do anything during a crisis. Their ships are controlled by Chinese state-owned corporations. So, the ships are just sitting there and the seafarers starve.”
The union is calling for government to encourage investment in Australian supply chains and an Australian strategic fleet to guarantee Australian trade and sovereignty. “Shipping is essential to our export industry,” said Crumlin. “We will do our bit in delivering the outcome through workers’ capital and super fund investment.”
The MUA has put forward detailed suggestions to strengthen the security of maritime infrastructure and supply chains.
In November, the union put proposals to the Department of Home Affairs in response to its consultation paper on “Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Systems of National Significance.”
In February, the MUA put similar proposals to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security which was reviewing government legislation including the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020, now before parliament.
Both MUA documents acknowledge the importance of working in partnership with government to develop “proportionate requirements that strike a balance between uplifting security, and ensuring businesses remain viable and services remain sustainable, accessible and affordable.”
The union said it was well aware of the need to build the resilience of critical infrastructure, especially in transport and logistics supply chains, due to international disasters such as the cyber-attacks on Toll Holdings shipping and freight operations in February and May, 2020; the MV Wakashio grounding and oil spill off Mauritius in July 2020; the Beirut ammonium nitrate port blast in August 2020; and the sinking off Japan of Gulf Livestock 1 carrying NZ cattle to China in September 2020 with the loss of over 40 lives including two Australians.
It also noted evidence of gun smuggling revealed by the 2015 coroner’s Inquiry into two crew deaths in Australian waters on the Panamanian registered Sage Sagittarius coal ship.
The impact of COVID-19 on international shipping and port operations also highlights potential risks to Australian shipping and port security, the union said.
In its submission to the Department of Home Affairs, the union called for the setting up of a national strategic fleet and measures to restore a “balanced” cabotage system.
In its submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security the union says the government’s Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 largely omits ships and shipping. This omission “camouflages the risk to national security from over dependency on foreign ships in Australian transport supply chains and the ease of access of non- national seafarers to critical infrastructure assets.”
“Because the Bill does not create certainty about the application of the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act) to ships, it camouflages and leaves a gap in Australia’s critical infrastructure risk mitigation system being strengthened by the provisions in the Bill.”
This is largely because Australia is almost totally dependent on foreign owned, operated and crewed ships for its sea freight trade.
Meanwhile back on the unnamed ship sitting off China, the ship’s cook is finally allowed to be treated onshore – in an ambulance outside the hospital. He is then returned to the vessel. Captain Timur calls for the still sick man to be allowed to return home. Nothing more is known of his fate. •
SEA BLINDNESS
Australia’s dependency on foreign shipping worries former Navy chief
Australia is so dependent on foreign shipping that obtaining critical supplies during a national emergency can’t be guaranteed, according to former Chief of Navy Tim Barrett.
Admiral Barrett said Australia was suffering “sea blindness”. “It really is a lack of understanding of the significance of the dependence we face,” he told The Australian newspaper.
Admiral Barrett is a board member of Maritime Industry Australia Limited, the body that represents Australian ship owners. He said COVID-19 and regional tensions mean that “only now we are discovering that we are in a very parlous state. The issue is around resilience to fuel supplies, pharmaceuticals, agricultural equipment, anything that’s critical to society.”
He pointed out that a national government has legal authority in a crisis to requisition civilian ships, which carry its flag or are controlled by its
companies but has no authority over foreign ships. “If you don’t have the capacity to requisition ships, there’s not much you can do in an emergency,” Admiral Barrett said. In the same article, Innes Willox of the Australian Industry Group said Australia was now more exposed than it “If you don’t have the had been for decades: “We are more vulnerable to economic capacity to requisition shock than we have been quite possibly since World War II, given ships, there’s not geopolitics and the fragmented much you can do in an nature of our core assets.” MIAL chief executive Teresa emergency.” Lloyd told The Australian there are now just 13 Australian– Admiral Tim Barrett flagged or controlled cargo vessels. Thirty-odd years ago there were 100. Britain still has 470 such commercial ships. She said the government “has made no efforts to do anything to incentivise or encourage an Australian shipping industry. The only thing they are even working on relates solely to the regulation of coastal trading, which is already dominated by foreign ships.” •
FLEETDisappearing
Senate inquiry recommends ways to rebuild the Australian fleet
ASenate committee has put forward 28 recommendations to promote shipping as an effective mode of transport using Australian ships and crews.
Many of the recommendations are broadly in line with MUA proposals to the inquiry by the Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee.
The committee’s recommendations are in its report titled “Policy, regulatory, taxation, administrative and funding priorities for Australian shipping”.
The committee’s Labor chairperson, Senator Glenn Sterle said the report sets out steps which the federal government can take immediately to strengthen the Australian maritime industry, train and employ Australian seafarers and develop a strategic fleet to support national economic and security interests.
“If they aren’t going to act on the report and support the Australian maritime industry and its workforce, it’s time they got out of the way and let us do it,” Senator Glenn Sterle said. He reminded parliament that Labor went to the last election promising to create a strategic fleet of some 12 ships.
Coalition Senators on the committee wrote a dissenting minority report disagreeing with “the overall tone and position” of the recommendations and claiming they would lead to greater industry decline.
Uneven playing field
The committee found that government road and rail subsidies disadvantage coastal shipping as a viable alternative. This was compounded by the fact that heavy vehicles may not be paying an appropriate price for the use of Australian roads, and by increasing charges at Australian ports.
The committee recommended that the government review the level of subsidisation across competing modes of transport to ensure that shipping is able to compete on an equal basis.
Tasmanian shipping
The committee urged the government to continue funding the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme and the Bass Straight Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme and advocated other initiatives to “promote safe and cost-effective shipping while also recognising Tasmania’s unique challenges.”
Seafarers’ wages
The committee called on the government to take immediate action to “reduce the cost differential” between Australian and foreign crews. Foreign-flagged vessels should be made to pay crew wages equal to those of Australian vessels while operating in Australian waters, it recommended.
“This is a central concern of the committee, as it believes this to be a key reason for the lack of Australian-crewed ships,” it said. “The committee is of the opinion that foreign seafarers are not fairly remunerated under existing arrangements and, hence,
strongly supports suggestions to increase wages for these mariners so that they better align with their Australian counterparts.
Foreign crew visas
The committee expressed concern that requirements to obtain a Maritime Crew Visa are inadequate and need strengthening, specifically around security, character, identity checking, and the misapplication of the MCV as a domestic work visa.
It said it was also concerned about suggestions that the Maritime Crew Visa system currently allows employers to sponsor maritime workers in permissible occupations, but then subsequently transfer them to non-permissible occupations.
The committee recommended stronger background checks to obtain a Maritime Crew Visa “to better align with those required for applicants applying for a Maritime Security Identification Card”.
It called for a government review to determine whether the existing Maritime Crew Visa system is being exploited by sponsors to allow foreign maritime workers to be transferred to occupations which are not eligible for sponsorship.
While calling on the government to retain the existing Maritime Crew Visa for seafarers on foreign ships undertaking short port calls as part of a continuing international voyage, it also recommended a new, or special conditions, Maritime Crew Visa that enables foreign seafarers to
SeaRoad Seafarers (from the left): Shane Davies – IR, Paul Creely – IR, Phillip Tippins – CIR, Benjamin White - IR on board the new Australian registered Ro-Ro MV Liekut (below) servicing the Bass Strait trade.
See New Ships p18
be in Australia for periods of up to 45 days for one of six specified purposes. Strategic fleet
The Australian government should commit to establish a strategic fleet by setting up a taskforce to advise on the necessary legislative, operational, funding, and requisitioning arrangements, the committee said. The fleet would operate on a commercial basis but be available for requisition by government in times of war or crisis. It would also provide vessels for seafarers to train on, gain sea time necessary to meet IMO STCW Convention requirements, and build up their experience at sea.
Taxation
The committee called for a review of maritime tax concessions “to ensure that Australia’s tax system is competitive with other jurisdictions, and that it promotes the use of Australian ships and crews.”
It said Australia must have a competitive tax system to promote Australian shipping, and noted several suggestions raised by submitters which the government could pursue. •
