MUA offers peace deal but Christian Porter wary

Christian Porter has expressed dissatisfaction with the maritime union’s proposed peace deal to end the Port Botany dispute.

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter. Picture: Getty Images

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has expressed dissatisfaction with the maritime union’s proposed peace deal to end the Port Botany dispute, as Patrick admitted no urgent medical supplies were being delayed.

Negotiations between Patrick and Maritime Union of Australia officials will resume on Thursday after eight hours of talks on Wednesday failed to settle the dispute.

If the talks fail, Patrick will look at proceeding with a government-backed application to terminate legal action by the union.

Scott Morrison had accused the MUA of reprehensible, “straight-out extortion”, saying 90,000 containers had been delayed, including medical supplies.

But Patrick Terminals chief executive Michael Jovicic said on Wednesday the company had not been contacted by any shipping company seeking to unload urgen­t medical supplies.

In a letter to Health Minister Greg Hunt, a major pharmaceutical company warned of drug shortages, but only if the industrial action continued for weeks.

Arrotex Pharmaceuticals chief executive Dennis Bastas said the company was facing a “crisis at Port Botany which was threatening our pharmaceutical supplies and risking a dramatic increase in drug shortages”.

He said shipping companies in Asia and Europe were refusing to load containers and send ships to Sydney because they feared they would not be unloaded. Manufacturers were also delaying processing orders

“My supply chain team expects within a week the upstream issues will be causing 4-6-week delays in the anticipated delivery times for a number of our drug deliveries, which may result in shortages at Australian pharmacies,” he said.

“Within a few weeks the continued industrial action will have resulted in 10-12-week delays in a number of our scheduled product deliveries, which will produce significant market shortages.”

Mr Porter said the union’s proposal for a 12-month rollover of its current enterprise agreement with Patrick would not be a “particularly satisfactory” resolution.

He said on Wednesday that the union and Patrick should try to negotiate a new deal instead.

The union’s proposed deal drops industrial action for a year in exchange for rolling over the existing enterprise agreement and a 2.5 per cent pay rise.

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said the deal would see the union end industrial action, including bans, at Patrick’s container terminals and the retention of existing employee conditions.

“If Patrick refuses this peace offer, the Australian public will be left in no doubt which party is responsibl­e for escalating this unnecessary conflict at such a difficult time for the nation,” he said.

Mr Jovicic said the union had previously made a similar offer which was rejected because the union had also sought commitments limiting automation and outsourcing. He said the Port Botany terminal was operating at 60 per cent capacity, with four vessels waiting to dock, and 38 ships across the country were affected.

Company sources were sceptical about the benefit of a 12-month extension, particularly if the year-long period started in July.

Mr Porter said the union’s conduct “puts the supply chains of very important goods that Australians rely on in serious jeopardy”, a claim denied by MUA leadership.

He said private cancer physic­ians told him an end to the dispute was important to minimise future impacts to the supply of essential medicines.