MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA
MEDIA RELEASE
First tranche of ships for the Australian Strategic Fleet goes to tender
6 September 2024
The Maritime Union of Australia welcomes the major announcement by the Federal Government today that the first tranche of three ships will be put to a public tender in the coming weeks. The pilot programme will run for five years and is the crucial first step towards establishing the Strategic Fleet of at least 12 Australian flagged and crewed vessels that the Government committed to ahead of the last election.
Australian flagged and crewed vessels are an essential economic and strategic resource that will bolster our national security, disaster resilience and strengthen our place at the end of long global supply chains. As an island nation whose major economic activities are reliant on shipping, it defies logic that we vest so much of our economic and social security in the availability of overseas owned, controlled and crewed ships.
The Maritime Union has, throughout its more than 150 years of history, been a vocal advocate for the vital economic and social significance of a strong Australian shipping sector. Our country's current dependence upon foreign-flagged shipping and exploited seafarers is a glaring risk factor to our security and prosperity that the Strategic Fleet will begin to correct.
The Government has been working closely with the maritime sector, including unions, shipping companies and major industrial users of shipping to design and implement the policy framework through the Strategic Fleet Taskforce which met and deliberated over the course of 12 months in 2022 and 2023.
The Strategic Fleet Taskforce included:
- Chair, John Mullen (former Chairman of Toll Logistics and Telstra, now Chair of Qantas)
- Paddy Crumlin, Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary
- Angela Gilham, Maritime Industry Australia Limited CEO
- Dr Sarah Ryan, Non-Executive Director of Aurizon, OZ Minerals, Viva Energy, Woodside Energy
- Major General Jason Walk, Commander, Joint Logistics, Department of Defence
As well as the implementation of the Strategic Fleet now announced, the Taskforce also recommended legislative and regulatory improvements that are also being enacted.
"This methodical approach will deliver new ships to our coast flagged and crewed in Australia, marking the first time in generations that a Federal Government has acted so decisively to boost the number of Australian vessels operating in the national interest," said Paddy Crumlin, the MUA National Secretary. "The MUA has committed itself to the restoration of this crucial sovereign capacity and has been working steadily towards today's announcement alongside the Federal Government," Mr Crumlin added.
The Strategic Fleet vessels will be owned and managed by the private sector but are to be made available to the nation in times of need, including during conflict or disaster. This key measure is in direct response to the vulnerabilities highlighted by disasters and international pressures that have affected Australian supply chains in recent years.
"The bushfires, flooding and pandemic of the last five years shows how fragile our domestic and international supply chains are. By boosting our sovereign shipping capacity we can protect our economy and our communities against major shortages caused by disaster, geopolitical tension or global pandemic," Mr Crumlin said.
"Supermarket shelves in WA should not be bare when we have plentiful supplies of fresh food on the east coast, but the fires and floods which cut off the east-west road and rail links showed us how vulnerable to disaster our sisters and brothers in the west truly are. Likewise, the energy and resources pressures that the global economy faces due to the cumulative impacts of COVID, the Red Sea blockade and a long-running war in Eastern Europe highlights the current precariousness of our access to liquid fuels and our capacity to get our exports to global markets," Mr Crumlin added.
"As a consequence of successive poor policy making by the now LNP Opposition, Australia's fuel security is the worst it has ever been, with diminished local refining and just-in-time importation of liquid fuels meaning we operate on a week-to-week basis for fuel and oil reserves that are vital to our economic and social lives," Mr Crumlin explained.
The Strategic Fleet tender also stipulates that each vessel will provide three or more training berths to support the next generation of skilled Australian seafarers and address the skills and training shortage in the maritime industry that the Union has already identified and been working to address alongside major industry participants like INPEX and MIAL.
"The MUA has worked closely with both the government, commercial participants in the maritime industry and representatives from the defence forces to help design the Strategic Fleet so that it is sustainable and successful in the long term while delivering tangible economic and strategic benefits for the nation. We look forward to seeing Australian seafarers walk up the gangway of the first tranche of newly Australian-flagged ships in the very near future," Mr Crumlin said.
