Ship survivor

Dave Buder on the campaign trial. PHOTO Rosey Bohem

Dave Buder was a seafarer on the CSL Yarra fighting for his job in Port Pirie in May, 2000. It is a dispute still being fought out by the union in the courts that struck a chord with the Australian people - everyone from the local mayor and religious leaders, workers at Adelaide Brighton Cement, the ACTU lending the union a hand. Since the Yarra sailed to the Noumea and was renamed the Stadacona, Dave has just been doing relief work on a tug boat in Adelaide's Port River.

"It made me more determined and passionate about getting rid of this Government," he said. "There's no future for Australian shipping under John Howard. The Howard Government has a 'no shipping' policy. We'll end up with no merchant fleet when we need it most -- not just for the economy, but also for national security.

"When Australia sent troops to help the UN in East Timor, when the Indonesian militia were murdering people, we had to charter an Indonesian ship in Cairns to carry our stores. Just talking about it gets me upset.

"The Yarra dispute affected me badly. Being sacked and reinstated. All the to-ing and fro-ing. I felt very crook. I was doubled over in pain. It was all the stress. Or because of conditions on board that the company subjected us to. They cut off power and shut the ship down. They cut off food. We got some on board from the local community. But there was no refrigeration and I could have got food poisoning. I had terrible stomach pains. I was laid up for days."

"The Howard Government is conspiring with rogue shipping operations and rogue stevedoring companies to get rid of us," said SA Branch Secretary Jamie Newlyn. "It was proven with Patrick lockout. This Government wants nothing to do with Australian shipping. They'd rather use poorly crewed, poorly maintained ships that flaunt all our laws and pollute our beaches. They're paying their workers slave wages. We can't compete under those conditions. We have safe ships."

"They have a hatred for the MUA," said Dave. "They are hand in hand with big business. Whatever big business wants, big business gets. Under this Government it's the taxpayers who get slugged.

"Another thing. I don't want Australia to become the 52nd state of US. They don't have a very humanitarian society over there. They've got a rotten health system. It's not the way of life I want in Australia. And that's the way Howard's going. He's all the way with the USA - even going into Iraq to fight their war.

I've thinking of getting married and will be starting a family this year. Getting your kids a good education is getting beyond the everyday working family. The price of a degree means only rich kids can go to university.

"If John Howard is re-elected again it's going to be an industrial relations nightmare. I've just been doing casual work on the tugs so I can stick around and help the local Labor candidate.

"I've been helping the union ring around our members in the marginals. Everyone I spoke with so far was red hot anti-Howard and said they were voting Labor.

"But if I found any worker who hadn't decided how they were voting or said they were voting for Howard, I'd tell them to look at his industrial record of pitting worker against worker, mates against mates. I'd say look at his individual work contracts - AWAs. As far as seafarers are concerned, look what happened to us -- the Yarra seafarers. It could happen to any Australian seafarer.

I spent most of my time putting up 'Vote ALP' placards. I've been doing it every day since the election was announced. That and handing out MUA leaflets at the local shops.

Local member Tony Zappia is a friend of mine. I've known him for 20 years. He runs the local gym and he is the local mayor and he's been a member of the ALP since 1966. He's a man of principle and he wants to change things for the working class. Most genuine people understand John Howard is anti-worker, a terrible liar and not running a very humanitarian government.