Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon has joined in solidarity with the recently sacked workers from Newcastle and surrounds at rally in Canberra to save Australia\u2019s shipping industry. The seafarers are among 80 who lost their jobs when Bluescope and BHP dumped the last two Australian-crewed coastal bulk iron ore carriers last month.
\n\u201cThe treatment of these hard-working seafarers has been utterly shameful\u00a0\u2013 they were on the high seas thousands of miles away from home without any support or union representation when they found out they\u2019d lost their jobs,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cMany of these seafarers have families and mortgages. Now they\u2019ve been kicked in the guts, and will almost certainly be replaced by foreign workers on as little as $2 an hour. This is corporate greed at its most corrosive.\u201d
\nTighes-Hill based seafarer David Grant was in the middle of the China Sea on the MV Mariloula \u00a0when the email came through to the ship saying BHP had cancelled the ship\u2019s contract and the crew had lost their jobs.
\n\u201cIt came out of the blue. And it didn\u2019t help that we were in the middle of the ocean with terrible internet so it was really hard to get any information or contact our families,\u201d Mr Grant said.
\n\u201cWe took a two-year wage freeze because they said they couldn\u2019t afford to pay us. Now, when they\u2019re recording bumper profits, they turn around and sack Australian workers.\u201d
\nMr Grant, who had worked on the MV Mariloula for three years, said he\u2019d love to stay working on the water.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been on the sea for seven years and that\u2019s what I want to continue doing. But if we keep going this way, we\u2019re not going to have an Australian shipping industry – full stop,\u201d Mr Grant said.
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to see a cabotage model that prioritises Australian workers with Australian conditions on Australia\u2019s coast. You can\u2019t bring a foreign worker to run goods by road. Why are they allowed to do it on the Blue Highway?\u201d
\nMs Claydon said the Morrison Government is totally complicit in these job losses.
\n\u201cSince the Liberals came to power they have relentlessly attacked the Australian shipping industry and tried to install legislation that would encourage companies to sack their Australian crew and hire foreign workers on as little as $2 an hour,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cThe Morrison Government needs to stop granting temporary licences for routes like the ones travelled by the MV Mariloula and MV Lowlands Brilliance that are clearly permanent. This is a blatant abuse of the intent of the legislation.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said the revitalisation of Australia\u2019s shipping industry would be a core priority for Labor if it wins Government.
\n\u201cAussie seafarers are among the best in the world but the Liberal Government has worked tirelessly to do everything they can to undermine these jobs.
\n\u201cAs the largest island nation, a strong national shipping industry is critical to the environment, to our skills capability and to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon has joined in solidarity with the recently sacked workers from Newcastle and surrounds at rally in Canberra to save Australia\u2019s shipping industry. The seafarers are among 80 who lost their jobs when Bluescope and BHP dumped the last two Australian-crewed coastal bulk iron ore carriers last month. \u201cThe treatment … Continue reading “NEWCASTLE SEAFARERS RALLY IN CANBERRA”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}