Pacific Aluminium sackings spark new maritime row

The political fight over the government’s coastal shipping rules has deepened.

The political fight over the government’s coastal shipping rules has deepened with the maritime union protesting against Pacific Aluminium’s decision to sack the 16 crew on one of its ships and use foreign workers on its Newcastle-Gladstone route.

In a potential flashpoint likely to infuriate key Senate crossbenchers before parliament begins next week, the Maritime Union of Australia accused the Coalition of “giving the green light for another Aussie ship to leave the coast” after the government awarded a special licence to Pacific Aluminium to replace the Australian crew on CSL Melbourne.

The situation mirrors a bitter two-month industrial stand-off over the MV Portland in Victoria that ended when the ship’s owner, Alcoa, forcibly removed the crew in a late-night raid.

Pacific Aluminium this week ordered the crew to sail to Singapore, where the ship and seamen will be replaced. It said the move was linked to its decision to close its Kurri Kurri smelter in 2014, with the CSL Melbourne too big to service the company’s sole ­remaining smelter at Tomago.

But MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith dismissed the explanation.

“The foreign ship chartered as a replacement is in fact larger than the CSL Melbourne ... it simply doesn’t add up,” he said.

“This is a slap in the face for the Senate and the workers whose jobs are on the chopping block and their friends and families in the local community.

“The government needs to be reminded that Australian jobs are important — these workers have families, kids, mortgages and bills to pay.”

Proposed changes to Australian cabotage laws introduced by the Coalition were voted down by the Senate in November.

The federal member for Newcastle, Labor’s Sharon Claydon, said: “Despite the Australian Senate ­rejecting the Turnbull government’s latest attack on the shipping industry last December, they continue to undermine Australian workers through their issuing of temporary licences.”

The MV Portland affair provoked outrage from Senate crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and John Madigan, whose votes could be crucial to the Coalition’s legislative agenda this year.

The MUA and crew of the MV Portland are preparing to ­appear at a Senate inquiry in Canberra next week.