The oil and gas industry encourages the Australian Labor Party to take a step back and make a clear-eyed assessment of what will be jeopardised if it fails to support the use of Maritime Crew visas.
APPEA continues to support the repeal of the Offshore Resources Activity Act. The effect of the Act is to extend the control of the MUA over offshore pipe laying and resource related activity and reduce the competitiveness of Australia’s maritime construction industry.
Labor’s support of a disallowance motion creates great uncertainty and risks vital, specialised, construction work – such as offshore pipe-laying – grinding to a halt.
The oil and gas industry is currently constructing around $200 billion worth of projects that have already helped deliver 100,000 jobs across the economy and which will soon see the sector’s annual tax contribution approach $13 billion.
Many of these projects are at crucial stages of development and policy that undermines the industry’s capacity to deliver projects on-time and on-budget threatens both the commercial position of current investors and the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of future projects still to be approved.
At a time when Australia’s LNG markets are being targeted by a range of emerging competitors, our reputation as a safe and stable investment destination is under intense scrutiny.
The stakes are high and moves to extend the control of the Maritime Union are clearly not in the national interest.
[mappress] Press Release, July 15, 2014; Image: APPEA