The Maritime Union of Australia is calling out the deliberate policy settings and economic engineering that have created Australia’s perilous fuel security situation. Now as much as ever, Australians need fuel to get to work and to do their work. Without fuel and oil and the ships that move it, Australia stops.
As anxiety gathers pace in the community against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the need for a strategic fleet of Australian flagged and crewed ships operating in the national interest has never been more urgent.
Conflict in Iran now threatens global shipping routes and constrains crude oil flows through one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, but Australia has for a long time been dangerously exposed to these risks.
After ten years of betrayal during the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, a period defined by political spin and empty assurances, the reality is simple; Australia no longer has the ships, the refineries or the national planning capacity required to guarantee our own fuel supply.
This crisis has not emerged overnight nor in the last four years. It is the direct result of deliberate policy choices by neoliberal governments that dismantled Australia’s maritime capability and allowed our domestic refining capacity to collapse.
In quick succession around a decade ago, Australia lost every Australian flagged coastal petroleum tanker under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government’s deliberate policy of undermining Australian shipping.
- In 2016 BP withdrew the British Fidelity, the last Australian crewed tanker operating under the Transitional General Licence system.
- In 2015 three Australian flagged tankers disappeared from the fleet when refineries were shut down. Caltex withdrew the Alexander Spirit following the closure of the Kurnell refinery. The Hugli Spirit was removed when Caltex closed refining operations at Lytton. BP withdrew the British Loyalty after shutting the Bulwer refinery in Brisbane.
- In 2014 the Tandara Spirit was also removed from service after restructuring associated with the Geelong refinery.
These five ships once ensured that fuel produced in Australian refineries could be safely and reliably transported around the Australian coast by Australian seafarers operating under Australian law. Their loss has left Australia dependent on foreign flagged vessels operating under foreign labour standards and foreign strategic priorities.
At the same time governments allowed refinery after refinery to shut down. Facilities that once provided a critical layer of national resilience were abandoned in the name of short term corporate profit and free market ideology pushed by the political leaders of the Liberal-National Coalition.
Senior figures in the conservative parties bear direct responsibility for this national failure, including Angus Taylor, Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce.
Instead of defending Australia’s national interest, Coalition leaders allowed multinational oil companies to dismantle the infrastructure that kept Australian homes, farms and factories supplied with fuel.
The National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, Jake Field, said the current geopolitical crisis should serve as a wake up call.
“Global conflict has highlighted the truth our Union has been drawing attention to for many years. Australia is dangerously reliant on foreign tankers and overseas supply chains for something as fundamental as the fuel we all use to get to work or to do our work,” Mr Field said.
“Between 2013 and 2022, the Liberals and Nationals told Australians that the free market would provide endless cheap fuel. What we actually got was the destruction of our refining capacity, the disappearance of our tanker fleet and the hollowing out of our maritime industry. In turn, we have become hostage to global fuel cartels and the ships its transported on” Mr Field said.
“I think it’s a bit dishonest and hypocritical of Barnaby Joyce to be beating this drum now, because I don’t recall Barnaby being especially interested in our national security while he was in a position to actually do anything about it. Where were Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson, when Barnaby and Angus were sending our fuel reserves offshore?” Mr Field asked.
“They want to talk about national security? Fuel security is national security!” Field said.
“Let’s not forget it was these characters who created the policy settings that allowed oil companies and shipowners to dismantle the systems that keep this country running, and it was Angus Taylor who made the extraordinary decision to store our strategic fuel reserves in the United States,” Mr Field added.
“The MUA is calling for urgent national action including rebuilding Australia’s strategic tanker fleet, restoring domestic fuel production capacity and implementing a genuine national fuel security strategy,” MUA Assistant National Secretary, Jamie Newlyn said.
Mr Newlyn has been working closely with Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Catherine King, on the development and launch of the Australian strategic fleet – a 2022 election commitment made against the backdrop of Liberal and National Party antagonism towards the Australian shipping sector.
“A country that cannot transport its own fuel cannot guarantee its economic stability, its emergency response capability or its defence readiness,” Newlyn added. “Australia must rebuild its maritime capability before the next global crisis makes this situation even worse.”
“The entire sector and all industry stakeholders from the workforce through to bosses and Australian shipowners are screaming for this urgent intervention,” Jake Field said. “There is no greater topic of unity and consensus between all those involved in Australia’s transport and infrastructure sector – this must be done!” Field added.
ENDS
Contact details:
Tom Harris-Brassil: 0401 834 924
