ACTU:Tighten Foreign Ship Regulation

Date: 29 October 2002

The Federal Government should crack down on flag of convenience ships operating in Australian waters as part of anti-terrorism measures in the wake of the Bali bombings.

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said that the Howard Government should follow the lead of other nations like the United States to tighten regulation of foreign ships.

Ms Burrow said that the US had cracked down on flag of convenience ships after the September 11 attacks, but the Australian Government had continued to issue more and more permits for foreign ships to replace Australian vessels on domestic routes.

Flag of convenience ships are not subject to full customs and immigration controls. They employ seafarers who are granted special purpose visas without normal immigration processing requirements.

Of the 263 foreign seafarers who jumped ship in Australia between March 1996 and April 1999, only 148 have been located, according to government figures. Hundreds more may have entered Australia unreported.

"Flag of convenience ships are a security risk, a danger to the marine environment and a threat to the local shipping industry. They steal Australian jobs, do not pay Australian taxes or wages and are not subject to Australian safety standards," Ms Burrow said.

The secretive ownership and control of many foreign registered ships also concerned unions. Last week Lloyd's List news service reported that NATO and Yugoslav maritime authorities detained the Tongan registered Boka Star on suspicion of transporting military supplies to Iraq,
including a substance of possible use for the launch of Scud missiles.

Last month Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that Italian police had arrested 15 Pakistanis suspected of belonging to al-Qaida on board a Tongan registered cargo ship on August 5 and charged them with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and subversion.

The Tongan flag of convenience has been at the centre of a dispute in Australia surrounding the flagging out of the former Australian registered vessel Wallarah.

After the September 11 attacks last year, The Times of London (Secret Fleet Supplied Bombers, October 9, 2001) reported that businesses connected with Osama bin Laden controlled a multi-million dollar flag of convenience shipping operation.

For further information

Contact:	Jeremy Vermeesh
Union:	ACTU
Contact Mobile:	0408 513849
WWW:	http://www.actu.asn.au

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