Neo-liberal industry policy and employment relations in Australia's shipping industry

This paper examines Australian neo-liberal shipping policy and the resulting employment characteristics of the current era. The author argues on the basis of documentary and interview research, for a significant discontinuity in contemporary policy and employment practices. These discontinuities are cumulative, and are part of a causal chain involving government, employers, customers and trade unions. With the rise of neo-liberalism, Australian shipping policy has substantially changed course rejecting not only past forms, strategies, and cooperative approaches, but also extent the alternative norms and models of developed world practice in the staffing and regulation of merchant shipping.