Cry me a river as well-paid sea Poseidon pilots strike over salary; Civic’s lurch to the left

Pilot vessels and their crew are responsible for guiding ships into port.

Drama on the high seas of Brisbane – or perhaps just the harbour? – as port operator Poseidon Sea Pilots faces strike action from its people over a wage dispute that’s been deadlocked for months.

About 24 pilots – the gutsy, unsung mariners who shepherd gigantic ships into port – have voted to take action against the company, claiming they’re underpaid, badly trained and suffering from a shortage of manpower (and Margin Call weeps for them – they’re on $347,000 salaries, work 23 weeks a year, and are asking for a 30 per cent uplift, plus CPI).

But it appears that while ­Poseidon is telling the workforce that it hasn’t the dosh to lift the pay and conditions, the company does appear to have plenty of slush for an expansion into Victoria. Talk about a thumbing of the nose.

Six non-union pilots have been dispatched to Melbourne for the expansion where we’re told they’re undercutting the competition with lower fees. These pilots are on roughly $400,000 salaries and are helming two $3.5m launch vessels, purchased for this territorial incursion.

Simon Moore of Colinton Capital Partners

How has Poseidon achieved this? Two years ago it won a $250m contract from the Queensland government to provide services to the Brisbane port. The suggestion is that some of the money – taxpayer funds – has been siphoned off to assist with the southern venture. Very cheeky, if true. The company ­denies it, of course, saying it’s all self-funded.

So what’s all this about no money? Isn’t Poseidon partly owned by Simon Moore’s buyout firm Colinton Capital Partners? Surely a PE barbarian wouldn’t try to run a regulated entity into the ground for the sake of making more money!

Perhaps the solution might be to transfer the six pilots back to Brisbane, thereby solving the workforce shortage. Or, as one of the pilots told Margin Call: “You’ve got 20-odd pilots flogging themselves around the clock, and six guys walking around like royalty, choosing their own hours and cherrypicking jobs. There’s no money to pay us, but there’s millions to set up shop in Melbourne and pay six guys over the odds.”

We asked Poseidon for a response but didn’t receive one.

Civic solidarity

Forgive us for thinking Melbourne lobby shop and crisis managers The Civic Partnership – on speed dial for Israel Folau and Andrew Thorburn – had taken a hard detour left by recruiting former Rudd government minister Alan Griffin last year, a timely decision just a month before Scott Morrison was turfed from office.

To put Griffin’s bolshevism in context, he employed Dan Andrews as his electorate officer in the early ’90s, ran numbers for Kevin Rudd during his leadership jousting with Julia Gillard, and used to bunk with Anthony Albanese and Tim Gartrell in Canberra. Does he also sing all six verses of Solidarity Forever in the shower each morning? Margin Call can only wonder.

Former Rudd-era minister Alan Griffin.

Luke Donnellan has joined as special counsel.

Certainly an odd choice of firm for Griffin, too, given Civic’s rolodex of conservative clients. But it’s not all RWNJs. They also spin for the Liberman family’s woke-ified Sentient Impact Group, as Margin Call discovered this month when it chronicled Berry Liberman’s speech to a NAB private wealth event (in which she termed ESG a “crock of shit”). Griffin’s entree might also explain the firm’s recent work for the Rugby League Players Association in its war against the NRL and Peter V’landys.

Margin Call’s recent fossicking of the lobbyist register reveals Civic is now adding another wildcard to its unholy leadership alliance. It’s hired former Victorian minister Luke Donnellan, of the ALP right faction, as a special counsel at the firm.

You can imagine Donnellan and Griffin trying to pass each other in the hallways. Presumably there’ll be separate tables at the Christmas party, too?

Big bash and crash

And speaking of V’landys, as boss of Racing NSW, he would be absolutely dining out on the circus of misfortune afflicting Racing Victoria right now. But presumably even he would be astonished by the flights of stupidity being put on show by his southern rivals, all of which has us rather worried for local boss Andrew Jones.

Margin Call is hearing much talk of a mutiny in the works. Derided for floating a “Big Bash”-style of racing – in which jockeys would wear earpieces and work in teams – Jones was queried on radio this week about any concerns that he’d alienated stakeholders.

“I couldn’t care less,” was the reply, which you can be sure caused some bristling in certain quarters. Expectedly, Big Bash Racing has been ditched and, despite the bluster, Jones is apparently next.

Racing Victoria chief executive Andrew Jones.

Billionaire racing benefactor Jonathan Munz is already a voluble critic, while Victoria Racing Club CEO Steve Rosich has made his own displeasure clear behind closed doors.

Appointed in March last year, Jones is said to have beaten out a field of contenders for the gig, among them former AFL boss and Crown director Andrew Demetriou. Somehow, he’s still not regarded as one of the boys, one of the clique, and maybe that’s why – unlike almost every other racing executive in the country – he wasn’t sighted at Royal Ascot this year.

Alas, the scramble for fresh leadership seems to be building as spring carnival looms. This while the Dan Andrews state government hasn’t been able to replace former Toll Holdings boss Brian Kruger since he stepped down as Racing Victoria chairman in May. Clearly the wheel doesn’t turn so quickly in Melbourne racing circles. And no, the Victorian’s almost decade-long quest to convince outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (best known for wearing a mustard jacket to Warrnambool races) is unlikely to succeed either.