MEDIA ALERT:
Monday 23 March 2026 at 2pm
APH - 27M House of Reps Courtyard
Report Launch and Press Conference
Amidst a global supply chain crisis and oil shock, the Maritime Union of Australia has called upon the Albanese Government to swiftly regulate AI in strategically significant supply chain sectors like stevedoring and port services. The call comes as Dubai Ports controlled container terminals across Australia face an automation and AI control project being pushed by the multinational’s foreign owners.
Dubai Ports operates four terminals in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Sydney and is effectively one half of the Australian container terminal duopoly.
Dubai Ports's Australian management team is currently pushing an AI and automation agenda fed to it by disgraced former global CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. Bin Sulayem was named extensively in the Epstein Files and was revealed as the identity behind the infamous ‘torture video’ email -- revelations which prompted him to step down as CEO of DP World.
DP World is the world’s fifth largest port operator, owned by the Government of Dubai and Gulf royal families via offshore structures
The company extracts hundreds of millions of dollars annually from Australian businesses and consumers but pays next to no tax in Australia. Despite years of rising revenues and fees charged to Australian businesses, DP World paid no corporate income tax in Australia for over a decade. Workers’ wages and their taxes (around $70 million in 2025) make up the company’s primary economic contribution
The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), alongside the Maritime Union of Australia, is launching the ‘Job losses and profit shifting at DP World: How AI automation threatens Australia’s economic wellbeing’ report at Australian Parliament House today in Canberra.
The report sets out how Dubai Ports aims to implement large-scale AI automation in Australia, threatening up to 1,000 jobs (over 60% of the workforce). The proposed automation would replace skilled, unionised roles with driverless vehicles and remote-operated cranes. The automation push conflicts with the Australian Government’s National AI Plan, which requires worker and union consultation.
Evidence suggests the primary goal is cutting labour costs and boosting profits, not improving supply chain efficiency. Increased profits are driven by higher landside fees, which are passed on to businesses and consumers, contributing to inflation.
The Maritime Union has been pushing a variety of supply chain sovereignty of policy measures to inoculate the Australian community and economy from global shocks and interference, including the recent oil crisis caused by Trump’s war on Iran and the ripple effect being felt throughout the supply chain.
The report comes at a critical juncture in Australia’s maritime and strategic needs, with our island nation sitting at the end of long global supply chains and significant physical constraints squeezing consumers and businesses in the first oil shock of the 21st century.
The events of the last few weeks, which the MUA has been warning of for many years, highlight the need for Australian policymakers to bolster and broaden our sovereign infrastructure rather than allow it to be diluted by a foreign stevedoring behemoth owned and operated by the Dubai Royal family.
The recommendations of the report include:
- Enforce strict oversight, transparency and accountability for AI systems in the workplace
- Protect worker data and ban invasive surveillance practices
- Ensure safety, job security and public benefit are prioritised over corporate profit
- Guarantee full bargaining rights and protected industrial action when AI or automation is introduced
- Strengthen tax transparency and crack down on profit shifting and offshore royalty payments
Quotes attributable to Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary, Jake Field:
“DP World’s Australian ports were thrown in to disarray and paralysis two years ago when the company was targeted with an extensive and significant cyberattack. Further entrenching the risk of foreign interference in our essential port infrastructure by embedding AI and automation software that is susceptible to infiltration and disruption would be pure insanity,”
“AI automation of our ports by foreign multinationals is brazenly in their self interest and contrary to Australia’s national security and economic needs. At a time of significant and disruptive impacts on our supply chain and global uncertainty, allowing the Dubai Ports company to let AI rip in our container terminal networks is a sovereign risk we cannot tolerate,”
“This company’s only economic contribution to Australia is through payroll tax and the income tax paid by its workers, who Dubai-based executives want to replace with robots, but Dubai’s robots don’t pay tax. The MUA is standing up and fighting back against the global multinationals who want to throw Australian workers on the scrapheap while exposing our economy and community to immeasurably risky AI automation of critical infrastructure,”
ENDS
Contact details:
Tom Harris-Brassil: 0401 834 924
