CECKAGAINST DELIVERY FMBARQCOFD UNTIL DlELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF ' SHIP TO SHORE'
MELBOURNE 21 NOVEMBER 1990
There is no container port of greater significance in
Australia than the Port of Melbourne. It is Australia's
largest port with assets of over $ 1 billion; it generates
annual income of $ 120 million; and It handles around 40% of
Australia's container traffic.
And as Rupert Lockwood's book ' Ship to Shore'
comprehensively proves, there can surely be no port with a
more colourful past dating back to the earliest days of
European settlement of the Port Phillip area.
It was here that the excitement and chaos of the Gold Rush
was so vividly experienced; it was here that the new
Melbourne Wharf Laborers' Union the predecessor of the
Waterside Workers' Federation, formed 105 years ago helped
pioneer the arbitration system; it was here that the
dislocation and trauma of the Depression spilled over into
violence~ and bloodshed; it was here that war tine and boom
time and the modern technological revolution have forced the
pace of dramatic change.
Given such a sweep of events, a well-told and well-informed
historic record is essential; we should be reminded both of
the defe3ats and the victories, the failures as well as the
successes. With ' Ship to Shore' we now have such a record,
and the Melbourne branch of the Waterside Workers'
Federation is to be congratulated for its initiative, and
Rupert Lockwood congratulated for his efforts in telling
this story.
The Federation and the Australian Labor Party go back a long
way together. When your national Federation was launched in
1902 in Australia's first Parliament House that is, the
Parliament House in Melbourne it was headed by a committee
of Labor~ politicians. Lockwood disparagingly refers to this
group of men " who, with one exception, had never clutched a
cargo hook".
3422
I
But I don't want to dwell on the past as richly
embroidered. with larger-than-life figures and events as it
is. To do so would be a lost opportunity, because there is
so much that is important happening now, that has profound
and enduring effects for the future of Melbourne's, and
Australia'sa, waterfront.
What we arel seeing at present is nothing less than a
sweeping transformation of the attitudes and the
institutions of the waterfront.
The reason I was happy to accept your invitation to address
you today is that it provides me with a very welcome
opportunity to recognise the role of the Federation in this
great transformation and to congratulate the Federation
and all its members for the positive and constructive
contribution they are making to it.
The Federation's dealings with Victorian farmers illustrates
just one aspect of this transformation. For many years,
relations with the agricultural sector of this State a
sector that relies very heavily on the waterfront to ensure
its produce reaches the markets in time and in top condition
were not exactly close.
It's very mnuch to the credit of both sides that these
problems have been addressed in a frank and commonsense way
at the negotiating table, face to face, as they should be.
This has made both sides much more informed about each
other's needs and processes.
The last few years have seen such a dramatic improvement in
relations that visits up-country by waterfront workers, and
visits to the port by farmers, are now regular events.
Today it is a particular pleasure to know that this audience
includes a number of farmers' representatives as the special
and welcome guests of the Waterside Workers Federation.
In this small but significant way you have successfully
demonstrated the truth of one of the central principles of
my Government. It is only by working together and by
recognising each other's point of view that Australia as a
whole will gain the capacity to build a new era of economic
productivity and prosperity.
Before I talk about the details of waterfront reform, I want
to put it in its proper perspective the perspective
provided by more than seven and a half years of Government,
in which we have consistently followed a strategy directed
at improving the quality of life for all Australians.
Our strategy has seen consistent pursuit of these goals:
sustained and sustainable economic growth;
continuing employment growth;
controlled and equitable wage growth; 3423
increased efficiency and international orientation of
the economy aiming at a transition to a competitive
world class economy fully enmeshed in the dynamism of
the Asia-Pacific region;
a fairer society created through radical welfare
reform, with the emphasis on better services for
families and for the aged and sick; but all of this
within the context of unprecedented financial
responsibility and restraint;
a clevrer country in which intellectual skills are
prized and harnessed to the broader needs of the
community; and
an environment safeguarded for future generations
through policies of ecologically sustainable
development.
Everybody -in this audience will be familiar with the phrase
micro-economic reform. Indeed more than most Australians,
you are at the front line of micro-economic reform. I want
to make sure today that you understand the direct and
integral way in which micro-economic reform contributes to
the pursuit of these broad goals.
The transformation we are seeing on the waterfront, taken
together with the sweeping reforms across the whole spectrum
of the Australian economy, is starting to yield the benefits
we seek for all Australians: better employment prospects, a
more capab * le and diverse export performance, and higher
productivity, opening the door for a steadily stronger
Australian achievement in the competitive markets in the
world. The Federal Government has overhauled the system of taxation
in this country, introducing a fairer and more efficient
system in which all Australians pay their fair share. We
have fostered a more cooperative and constructive approach
to industriLal relations in this country. We have slashed
the inefficiencies of tariff protection, liberalised the
financial system, and improved the management of Government
Business Enterprises.
During the last election campaign I promised to accelerate
further tho pace of such micro-economic reforms. You will
be aware that only a fortnight ago I delivered to Parliament
a comprehensive statement of our achievements in this regard
achievements that we have recorded in the last eight
months. I referred to the recent Special Premiers' Conference at
which the Premiers, Chief Ministers and I were able to
achieve lanting reforms in a genuinely constructive and
positive at~ mosphere a very welcome change from the normal,
somewhat acrimonious, tone of such gatherings.
3424
We recognised the truth that if we are credibly to seek a
more efficient and dynamic performance from employers and
workers in the private sector, we had also to make sure that
the public sector is as efficient as it can be.
For the Federal Government, we have over the past seven and
a half years steadily built a leaner public sector that is
better focussed on its essential tasks.
At the Premiers' Conference we embarked on a new effort to
make the federal system itself the way the three tiers of
Federal, State and local government relate to each other
more effic: ient and better attuned to the demands of our
complex modern society.
Never before have the heads of all the Australian
Governments been able to achieve such progress in this task.
Among our achievements, we signed an agreement to bring new
investment and improved performance to rail freight, and
complementing this we were able also to start work on
improving the funding and standards of road transport.
Parallel to all this, the Australian Labor Party has
pioneered a dramatic change in Australia's
telecommunications industry. As a result, there will be new
investment, new Jobs, new exports, and for consumers,
cheaper services and greater choice all within the context
of a strong public sector involvement in this vital
industry. And we have at last liberated domestic aviation from the
dead hand of the two-airline agreement, opening the door to
new services and lower prices.
This is the context of determined and dynamic change in
which the Government's commitment to reform of the
waterfront must be seen. Let me today spell out what the
key elements of the Government's approach have been.
First, we made sure that we knew, and that all of the other
parties involved in the waterfront knew, just what the
existing problems were. We didn't rush in with a
confrontationist approach that sought to shove some
ideological remedy down people's throats.
After a very deliberate process of examination of the
industry's problems and needs, we announced on 1 June 1989
a date that will loom large in future histories that will be
written of the Australian waterfront a comprehensive
three-year reform process for the waterfront that promises
major labour productivity gains.
Quite simply this is the most comprehensive program of
reform ever undertaken on the waterfront; it will usher in
an entirely new era of efficiency and growth for your vital
industry; and in so doing it will ensure that Australia as a
whole is a more productive and competitive force in the
world economy. 1125
4 The program concentrates on two key areas.
The first, covering ataymdoring and container depot
indartim, commenced with the establishment last year of
the Waterfront Industry Reform Authority.
This authoriLty is overseeing the implementation of the
agreement, n., egotiated between the Government, ACTU, and key
waterfront employers and unions, that will massively
restructure employment arrangements.
Enterprise employment at major ports will replace the
existing industry-based system.
The workforce will be rejuvenated with the offer of early
retirement -to 3,000 older employees and recruitment of 1,000
younger new entrants.
Award restructuring will develop greater labour flexibility.
Regional ports will become more efficient with new labour
arrangementl3 aimed at phasing out cross-subsidisation of
stevedoring labour costs.
Most importantly, the process has now led to the achievement
of the first enterprise agreement between a major employer
and the Wate~ rside Workers Federation the historic National
Terminals agreement.
The second element of the reforn program involves Sñ AtaBnd
Tprrññ nz Grnments in reform of Port Authorities.
The Governments of the six States and the Northern Territory
have given their full support to the Inter-State
Commission'a recommendations that affect them.
Operations of port authorities are being commercialised and
pricing practices are being reformed. The Australian
Transport Advisory Council has a continuing role in review
of the progress being made.
There is a long way to go, but we already have some runs on
the board. The Autralian Wheat Board estimates that new
stevedoring arrangements for bulk grain will save S2.7
million a year.
Gangway watchmen reforms will save about $ 30 million
per year.
The initial intake of 213 new employees has completed
training and is at work.
34 26
, I I 6.
Its a pity that Bob Collins is unable to be here today. AS
Minister for Shipping he has been tireless in helping bring
about these changes. Many of you will have met him and so
you will know his determination, through consultation and
first hand understanding of the industry, to achieve
significant and sustainable reform in this key industry.
But I want to take this opportunity to underline how much
he, and the Government as a whole, appreciate and respect
the way in which the trade union movement and this
Federaticn in particular have supported these reforms.
Without your active support, of course, no progress could
have been. achieved. That would have been a tragedy for the
Australian economy as a whole and it would have been a
betrayal of the best interests of your members.
But with your support, we have achieved gains which benefit
your memkers and all Australians.
You have played a vital role in developing an interim award
agreement: that will facilitate award restructuring and the
negotiation of enterprise agreements.
With your pending amalgamation with the Australian Foreman
Stevedores Association and the Seamenp' Union of Australia,
you will be taking a giant stride towards more effective
protection of your members' interests and more speedy
negotiation with employers.
And all of this take careful note, all those who suggest
that confrontationist industrial relations might be a
preferabl e course has been achieved without industrial
disputation. It has indeed been the very model of how negotiated reforms
can achieve lasting benefits to all parties.
The publication of " Ship to Shore" broadly coincides with
the first centenary of the Federation's existence at the
port of Melbourne. As a result of your support for these
reforms, you have made sure that waterfront unionism will
continue to be a strong and relevant factor in Australia's
ports well into your second century. ' 3427