crews in australia.

[baglimit]

hi folks – a quick question.

is there any requirement for australian or foreign vessels to only use australian crews in australian waters ?
are there any nationality restrictions on crews at all ?

thanks in advance.

[James McLauchlan]

My experience is as follows.

The marine crew
If the vessel is not Australian flagged then in all likelihood it will be required to be crewed by Australian marine crew. This means that prior to entering Oz waters the whole crew would be replaced by not only Oz marine bridge and deck crew. The catering staff, no matter what nationality, would also be replaced by those permitted to work in Australia.
Some senior levels of marine crew (Chief Engineer for example) may be able to stay on-board as ‘advisers’ but the Captain must be Oz.
Note: Good job this wasn’t a requirement 150 years back! Still times move on 😉

Project staff
Project staff can stay on-board and work in Oz only if the company can obtain work permits for them on the basis of specialist knowledge of the systems onboard and that an Oz person with sufficient experience cannot be found to fill that position. i.e. With the best will in the world an Oz sourced project person, be they Offshore Project manager, ROV supervisor etc., might not have sufficient knowledge of on-board operations & equipment to allow safe and practical operations to commence from the outset of ops in Oz.

The whole concept appears to be based around Union influence and the in country approach to employing Oz people before any other nationality. Not a totally whacky idea at all.

This is something the UK sector should look at picking up on sooner, rather than later, IMHO.
In Oz they do it and the world is fine with that… in the UK? Oh no! We can’t do that because we might offend somebody.

[mind-when-this-was-fields]

All that’s required to enter the UK by a non European is a poxy letter which can be written by any tom dick or harry!!
All it does is state what the person is here for and under certain sections of the work laws. toooooo easy!!!
That’s the reason certain major companies can find it so easy to employ people from Philippines etc and pay them a pittance.
British jobs for British people.
aye right))))

[baglimit]

thanks james – appreciate the insight.

theres plenty of hoo haa at present re:who gets the workload from the chevron gorgon project – OZ or foreign companies. the state & federal govt provide their own spin, but reality (from local companies point of view) is they will see very little direct work, and only limited sub-contract. woodside on the other hand are keen to promote their history of using local, and intentions to use local (about 50-60%) for their pluto project.

considering the scale of these & other intended projects, what are the thoughts of forum members on the intentions of the larger engineering & service companies – force their way into the OZ market thru establishing bases in OZ, or could they find it too hard to gets started and just seek work elsewhere.

again thanks in advance.

[Andy Shiers]

How about we have a reciprocating arrangemnet 🙂
Kick all the Auzzies out of the UK until we are allowed in 😀
And just kick the Americans out 😀

[James McLauchlan]

considering the scale of these & other intended projects, what are the thoughts of forum members on the intentions of the larger engineering & service companies – force their way into the OZ market thru establishing bases in OZ, or could they find it too hard to gets started and just seek work elsewhere.

again thanks in advance.

Large operators/service companies will always find a way in. They will either

a) Buy an established Oz co, and then ramp them up overnight, add in their choice of local management (but leaving no doubt in local management eyes that there is a clear line of control back to their corporate HQ) and still clearly indicate to their client who is behind the initiative.
The operation would look Oz from the outside but, without doubt, the corporate strings would clearly be pulled from overseas.

Or

b) Register a new Oz company, throw money at it, employ Oz management and staff and bring in vessels and gear from their global asset stock as and when required.

With the best will in the world I suspect that no western government has a way of blocking this type of approach in a free market society without falling foul of international trading laws.

No matter who gets the contract(s) you can be sure that plenty of Oz people will be employed along with the odd (smallish) smattering of foreign skilled/experienced workers on work permits.

Make no mistake, these are big greedy corporate companies. They may not be lean (far from it) but they are certainly mean. If there is a way to make money they will find it.
They may have to abide by government and union rules (the latter they will hate, but will tow the line however) but they will do what ever is required to boost shareholder returns.

[baglimit]

How about we have a reciprocating arrangemnet 🙂
Kick all the Auzzies out of the UK until we are allowed in 😀
And just kick the Americans out 😀

lostboy – here’s another alternative….

i agree, kick out the aussies, but purely to stop them returning to OZ and telling us resident in OZ "what a great place, blah blah blah". how are we resident in OZ able to maintain our ideals of the land of POM being a feral strewn, vile place where children eat coal dust and adults never bathe !!

until you overturn your rules relating to importing south african cricketers, youre stuck with us lol.

[Andy Shiers]

😆 😆 😆
And the Yanks ………………….. What do we do with the Septics ?

[Scott Beveridge]

😆 😆 😆
And the Yanks ………………….. What do we do with the Septics ?

Ya’ don’t have to put up with them…. BUT, ya’ hafta put up with me !

[Author]

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