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Readers who live near ports may be wondering why ships were sounding their horns at midday on Wednesday 8th July,. They did so in support of their seafarers.
Commercial mariners, Australia and international shipping are now at crisis point.
Seafarers are being forced, by government rules to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, to stay at sea for months beyond what they originally agreed. We have heard of seafarers being required to stay at sea for up to 14 months.
Forced to work for 14-months by the circumstances
Maritime crew changes can currently be efficiently carried out in Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania.
Queensland, for example, has carried out around 1,000 crew changes since 18 May and has had no COVID-19 incidences.
But crew changes are severely hampered in New South Wales and Western Australia due to those states imposing a 14 day hotel quarantine requirement on replacement crew arriving by international air. Further difficulties may be encountered with caps being imposed on the number of travellers that can arrive in Australia by air.
If there is no easing of the crew change rules then an increasing number of ships will arrive in NSW ports with crew exceeding the 14 month maximum.
Ships are being – and will be – detained
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has announced it will detain ships with crew who have been aboard for 14 months. That action is quite in line with Australia’s international obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention.
If a ship arrives with a substantial part of its crew being in breach of the 14 day limit then the ship will be unsafe owing to being under-manned. Such ships will block our berths, our anchorages and our ports.
Profound and severe consequences if ships block ports
The economic consequences to Australia of large numbers of ships blocking our ports are profound.
There can be severe, and exponentially escalating, costs to landside businesses if ships miss their sailing window such as, e.g. missing the high tide.
Blocked ports will adversely affect our international trade, and interrupt the supply of foodstuffs and medicines along with everyday goods needed by Australian families.
Our logistics industries may also be adversely affected with a downturn in cargo volumes. Remember: logistics is a major employer in Australia.
On the edge of a precipice
The economic impact of restricing the ability to carry out seafarer crew changes will be out of all proportion to any perceived reduction in COVID-19 risk. Especially as seafarers are not the major vector for the transfer of COVID-19.
Consider the topic of crew changes carefully Australia, for we are on the edge of a precipice.
