Unlikely Allies

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin with Vice Admiral Brewer, Seamenšs International Union Secretary Treasurer David Heindel and Assistant Vice president Ambrose Cucinotta and apprentices

Australian merchant seafarers honoured on US Merchant Service Day as LNG talks get underway between SIU and MUA

In May, a Washington gathering of US naval commanders, international shipping owners, merchant mariners, maritime unions, government ministers and members of Congress honoured the presence of an Australian. Ironically this was the national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, Paddy Crumlin.

It was the annual Maritime Memorial Day dinner and the applause was in recognition of the role Australian seafarers have played alongside our US

allies in war and peace. Many Australian and US merchant seafarers died in

WWII.

Besides the MUA national secretary, no Australian was there to represent our merchant marine. The Australian envoy had been invited but must have had higher priorities. This did not go unnoticed.

When it comes to maritime security, the gap between Australian and US policy is startling.

Unlike Australia, US governments, Republican and Democrat, pay homage to American seafarers every year. It's a national day of recognition.

In the words of US President George Bush, not a great supporter of organised

labour: "America's merchant mariners make our nation more secure and our economy stronger... These brave men and women demonstrate courage, love of country and devotion to duty, and we especially honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our nation."

Australian seafarers don't even get a guernsey on Anzac Day. By failing to recognise the one in eight Australian merchant seafarers who perished in the second world war, the Howard Government effectively degrades that magnificent contribution. This is something that the US and most other countries would not countenance.

Washington's support of ships that fly the national flag and the men and women who sail them, is more than just fanfare. It is enshrined in the Jones Act, which preserves the US coast exclusively for US flagged and crewed vessels. Last year Washington invested a further $186 million into the US merchant marine under its multi-billion dollar Maritime Security Program.

While Australia is busily eroding cabotage and deregulating coastal trade in favour of tax avoidance and low cost 3rd world labour, the US restricts its coast to US flagged and crewed vessels. And only US flagged and crewed vessels are enlisted to provide naval support in its national defence.

While talking about national security, the Australian Government at the same time ignores warnings that its laissez-faire shipping policy is jeopardising Australian shores.

Flag of Convenience ships owned in one country, registered over a fax machine in another with crew supplied by manning agents who in some cases auction jobs, ID and accreditation papers, are all the rage in Australia.

Ships of shame with a record of polluting our shores; ghost ships that change names and flags between ports, have many recorded instances of drug smuggling and gun running. These are the ships of choice for Australian freight forwarders. They are cheap and on any given day there are between 30-40 of them encircling our coast with guest workers carrying our domestic trade without migration vetting. These shipment include highly volatile and security sensitive cargoes ‹ all with the government stamp of approval. Yet Australian maritime workers have been subject to increasingly extensive background checks in the name of national security.

In April this year the Australian Strategic Policy Institute cautioned that employing foreign seafarers on our coast was a high risk public policy.

The Institute's strategy report Future Unknown: The terrorist threat to Australian maritime security, highlighted how terrorists could use a ship, its cargo or a container to transport terrorists or weapons into our cities.

In 2003 the OECD report Security in Maritime Transport: Risk Factors and Economic Impact, exposed how fraudulent seafarer ID papers were widely available on the black market. It warned of growing links between FOC shipping and terrorist groups.

The same year a British intelligence group joined visiting UN and Australian experts at a Melbourne maritime security conference in warning that world ports and shipping were vulnerable to terrorist attack.

And the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade report into Australia's Maritime Strategy, tabled in June last year, called on the Federal Government to urgently address security issues and other concerns raised by the Independent Review of Australian Shipping.

The Review, chaired by political odd couple former transport ministers (Peter Morris, ALP and John Sharp, National Party) warned that promoting cheap foreign shipping on our coast undermined border protection.

International shipping, according to the report, was "the weakest link in our national security system." The long list of mostly taxpayer funded reports goes back to the 1990's have consistently identified the economic and national importance of our own shipping fleet. All are gathering dust. When elected in 1996 the Government shot holes in the Australian shipping industry as part of the provocation of the MUA. At the same time it was the secretively supporting the training of scabs on the wharves in the lead up to the Patrick dispute, it was doing away with all fiscal and other support policies that kept Australian shipping afloat.

The government ignores the warnings of bipartisan and independent reports at its own peril and that of the Australian public. The MUA has consistently called on cabinet to place public and national interest and security ahead of ideology in the shipping industry.

While in the US, the National Secretary held discussions with the US ratings union the Seamenšs International Union (SIU) on securing understandings in Australian US LNG trade that that has recently being foreshadowed. LNG vessels continue to be identified as an extreme security risk.