THE Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has criticised the federal government’s plans to change Australia’s maritime security.
According to the MUA and its affiliate the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the government changes to maritime security will threaten honest maritime workers while causing greater holes in port security.
“The government is squandering an opportunity to make effective changes to national security and instead is adopting a Rambo-style scattergun approach by increasing the offences by which workers will be excluded from holding an ID card,” Australia’s ITF coordinator, Dean Summers says.
“The real issues are that there is no requirement for those with absolute control over critical infrastructure, equipment, recruitment, planning and scheduling to be checked.
“People with intimate knowledge of port operations, who have key decision making responsibilities, are currently not picked up in this scheme but left unchecked.”
Under the new proposal, the government wants the 120,000 MISC card holders to undergo compulsory security checks every two year rather than every five years.
“Unions demand that the government focus on the real threats rather than continue a redundant witch hunt of transport workers,” Summers says.
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