Fresh claims Abbott Government policy will cost Australian jobs

TONY Abbott faces more claims that his policies will surrender Australian jobs to low-wage foreign competitors.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott attends official opening of the Sarina Russo Job Access Ringwood Office. With Eric Abetz and Michael Sukkar. Picture:Carmelo Bazzano

TONY Abbott faces more claims that government policy will surrender Australian jobs to low-wage foreign competitors, just as he is boasting of boosting employment.

On Friday, the Prime Minister will be confronted by claims that his policy would ruin the expansion of an Australian shipping business thatserves Bass Strait, costing local jobs and increasing prices for goods in Tasmania.

SeaRoad Holdings is warning it might not go ahead with plans to invest $100 million on two new Australian cargo vessels.

It is one of a number of protests by the Australian shipping industry against the Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill, which encourages overseas shipping companies to do business here.

The Prime Minister is no longer dismissing another company’s claims that a senior bureaucrat advised it to sack local workers and take on overseas crews.

But he is continuing to defend legislation at the centre of the jobs row, which would allow foreign registered vessels to work in Australian waters without having to pay Australian wages.

West Australian-based North Star Cruises will tell Monday’s Senate committee hearing examining the legislation that government bureaucrats twice advised it to register off-shore and hire crews at cheaper rates.

The thinking was that, by avoiding Australian wage rates, the company could deal with the foreign boats it believed it would have to compete with, were the legislation to pass.

The accusation was contained in a written submission to the Senate committee. Mr Abbott dismissed the claim on Wednesday, saying it never happened.

This further angered North Star Cruises, with an executive protesting that he did not lie.

Mr Abbott stepped back from his comments on Thursday, failing to directly reject the claim.

“Well, obviously, I don’t know what is said in every single conversation right around Australia, but I can absolutely guarantee that this government would never encourage anyone to do that,” Mr Abbott said at a Melbourne function promoting job creation.

“I can absolutely guarantee that this government would never encourage anyone to do that.

“What I can guarantee is that this government is determined to reverse the laws on coastal shipping, that the former Labor government put in place, under which the number of vessels engaged in our coastal shipping trade dropped from 30 to 15.”

In his own written submission, SeaRoad managing director Michael Easy said 2013 shipping reforms by the former Labor government had encouraged it to buy two new ships to work between Tasmania and the Australian mainland.

Mr Easy said the removal of cabotage — the restrictions on foreign operators working coastal port-to-port business — would not bring benefits.

“The removal of cabotage on Bass Strait is unlikely to provide any improvement in the reliability and frequency of Tasmanian domestic shipping services,” he said in his submission.

“Whether it has an impact on Tasmanian shipping rates will be determined by the cost impact on the existing market. If there is a reduction in daily services to Tasmania, pricing may have to increase to cover the fixed cost of infrastructure.”

He said Bass Strait should be considered the Tasmania-Victoria state border, rather than part of the continental coast line.

“There is a lack of acknowledgment that Bass Strait is, in effect, a state border between Tasmania and the rest of Australia,” he said.

“To treat Bass Strait as no different from mainland Australia ignores the dedicated daily service provided by SeaRoad and the other two existing domestic Bass Strait operators, Toll Shipping and TI-Line.”

Originally published as Fresh claims Abbott Government policy will cost Australian jobs