MV Portland crew sacking sinks crossbench trust

Crossbench fury over the sacking of the crew of the MV Portland is threatening the government’s legislative agenda.

The MV Portland in Portland harbour in Victoria. Picture: Robin Sharrock

Crossbench fury over the sacking of the crew of the MV Portland is threatening the government’s legislative agenda for the year, as relationships between the ­Coalition and key senators have plunged to a new low.

Independent senator Jacquie Lambie slammed as “disgusting” the ­government’s backing of Alcoa’s decision to use foreign workers on the Western Australia to Victoria route, which has been sailed by the MV Portland for 27 years, telling The Australian yesterday it defied the “wishes” of the Senate.

“The crossbench senators are sick of getting bitch-slapped by this government”, Senator Lambie said. “This is about Australian jobs.”

She will be joined at a shipping summit today by fellow independents John Madigan and Ricky Muir, the Maritime Union of Australia and the shipowners association, with tensions high over the MV Portland affair and the ­Senate’s decision to torpedo the Coalition’s coastal shipping ­reforms last year.

Senators Lambie and Madigan claimed the ­government was routinely defying the wishes of the Senate.

Between the government and the crossbench “there’s got to be trust and at the moment there is none”, Senator Lambie said.

The senators, who look likely to vote against the bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission watchdog, flagged for the first week of parliament, ­expressed concern about the Coalition’s industrial ­relations legislative program.

Their votes will prove crucial when Employment Minister Michaelia Cash introduces a strengthened Registered Organisations Bill in response to the trade union royal commission.

Senator Lambie attacked Senator Cash for backing Alcoa’s move, which is illegal under coastal shipping laws ­without a special licence, which was granted by the government in October.

“I’m fuming with Michaelia. If she wants some sort of rapport with me, she will cancel those ­licences immediately.” ­

Senator Madigan said granting the licenses was a “back-door way” of getting through the coastal shipping legislation after the Senate defeat. He accused the government of failing to “play with a straight bat”. He also ­accused the MUA of “playing games”. Senator Muir also poured cold water on the prospects of the legislation passing again.

Writing in The Australian today, Senator Cash seizes on the MUA’s two-month blockade of the Portland, which began after ­licences were granted, to strengthen the case for tougher measures to improve union governance.

MUA national president Paddy Crumlin writes online in The Australian that “for a federal government that extols the ­virtues of playing by the rules, Malcolm Turnbull’s administration has failed the basic political axiom of ­following its own advice and it may put at risk their legislative agenda”.