Is the Australian government showing its first signs of shifting left, despite its promises of economic conservatism?
KEVIN Rudd will clamp down on overuse of foreign-owned ships to transport freight around the nation's coastline in a bid to bolster the shipping industry. The Prime Minister is also set to require foreign vessels in Australian waters to observe an International Labour Organisation convention guaranteeing fair pay and conditions for all seafarers. In a shift in approach from that of the previous Howard government, Labor will review coastal shipping laws to uncover ways to lift the domestic shipping fleet's share of the domestic freight market from its current level of about 80 per cent.The last I remember of the ILO was when they scuttled attempts to man the wharves in Australia with non-union labour, circa Peter Reith and the early days of the docks crisis. The Maritime Union of Australia, at the time on the receiving end of those reforms, will certainly be the main beneficiary. Paddy Crumlin, the MUA secretary was certainly excited after meeting with Albanese:
"He said we'd be going back to the platform."The platform in question consists of some ambiguously worded resolutions from last year's Labor national conference. My concern here is the inflationary effect of higher wages on the dockside (and at sea) being passed on to consumers and aiding inflation which is already rising. It is of such concern that the former Razor Gang could now be renamed the Axe Gang. Furthermore, as foreign operators are locked out of operating domestic cargo routes, a regime of quasi-protectionism begins to appear. Cabotage is not a good policy for a government that had promised to be freer of union influence than its predecessors, and this looks suspiciously like payback.
Explanation of Cabotage: The right of a country to operate internal traffic, especially air traffic, using its own carriers and not those of other countries
Update: Preview Clip from the ABC(AU) dramatisation of the events on the waterfront.
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