The Politics of Waterfront Reform in Australia

Abstract

Abstract Waterfront reform represents a crucial arena for micro-economic reform in Australia. In recent months reform has stalled due to an ill conceived campaign by the Howard Government to undermine the labour supply monopoly exercised by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). Stevedore companies, themselves enjoying a duopoly, are cooperating with the government to discredit work practices by drawing upon dubious international comparisons regarding waterfront productivity. A propaganda war is being waged to win public opinion over to the government and, in the process, garner support for further deregulation of labour markets and anti-union legislation. Meanwhile goods lie idle in Australian ports. The stevedores and government may well have underestimated the MUA's power. In spite of the frequency of critical media, the union holds some trump cards in the form of its members support for their leaders and, significantly, the International Transport Federation (ITF). The ITF has threatened ship owners with world-wide bans if they use non-union labour in Australian ports. In this troubled industry it appears that the Howard Government dogmatic faith in deregulated labour markets, and crude industrial tactics by some stevedore company managers, will only harm the nation's exporters and actually setback the processes of forging genuine waterfront reform.