Darwin: Wharfies forced into quarantine over COVID safety breach

THIRTEEN waterfront workers have been forced into 14-day mandatory quarantine following a COVID safety breach at the Port of Darwin involving a container ship that arrived from Singapore on Thursday.

Workers at the Linx terminal at East Arm Wharf who boarded the Tacoma Trader to unload containers have been forced into quarantine, with Northern Territory police collecting six from the wharf, along with an additional seven who worked the previous night shift. All have been transported to the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

The Tacoma Trader had been allowed to dock well inside the 14 day quarantine period after NT Health boarded the vessel to undertake health checks of the foreign crew, which involved temperature checks and a declaration from the ship’s master that there was no illness onboard.

Once NT health cleared the vessel of any COVID cases, waterfront workers were permitted to board the vessel to commence unloading the cargo.

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has been campaigning for foreign crew to be tested for COVID prior to Australian workers boarding vessels, but NT and Federal Governments refuse to implement that common sense approach to keep waterfront workers and the community safe.

MUA assistant national secretary Adrian Evans said health authorities had forced workers into quarantine, with workers told by police that it was because of an administrative failure by the vessel’s agent in declaring the number of days since its last port of Singapore, which is not a declared hotspot. This failure was out of the workers’ hands.

"This has been an extremely traumatic experience for our members, who were marched off the wharf by police and bussed straight into quarantine, including some who needed to get home to care for their children,” Mr Evans said.

“The Tacoma Trader, like most vessels arriving in Darwin, had not been at sea for 14 days, leaving waterfront workers dependent on government health checks of the ship’s crew to keep them safe. 

“Those biosecurity measures have clearly broken down, resulting in extreme hardship for nearly half the workforce at the Linx terminal who were simply doing their job, but are now stuck in quarantine.

“Given there are no COVID cases onboard the Tacoma Trader, we question why workers are in lock-up? This is clearly a bureaucratic overreaction.

“Dragging people out of their workplace and locking them up without a valid reason is clearly unacceptable. No one should go to work, then be forcibly detained in Howard Springs for two weeks.

“To make matters worse, these workers have been denied a change of clothes and are still in the same work gear they’ve had on since 6am yesterday.

“Our members worked all through the height of the pandemic, they have faced the risk of COVID infection to keep the economy going, and now they find themselves being locked up just for doing their jobs.

“We demand the immediate release of our members and a commitment from the NT Government that this will not happen again.”

The Tacoma Trader has now been diverted to Port Hedland, which will significantly impact delivery of cargo into the Territory. The union also warned that the quarantining of a large part of the workforce will impact the ability to load and unload other vessels at the Port of Darwin.

Mr Evans said the incident highlighted the union’s repeated warnings that Australia’s COVID biosecurity measures — which vary between states and territories — are fundamentally flawed.

“The MUA has written to National Cabinet on a number of occasions, highlighting flaws in Australia’s biosecurity measures, and urging an immediate overhaul to create a nationally-consistent regime for addressing the very real threat of COVID arriving on international commercial vessels,” Mr Evans said.

“This issue is particularly important for the NT, because the territory’s close proximity to Asia means most vessels are arriving less than 14 days after departing foreign ports.

“What we need is the rapid testing of all seafarers arriving in Australian ports, ensuring COVID outbreaks onboard are immediately identified, appropriate health support is provided, and Australian workers are protected from the risk of infection.

“This case highlights the precariousness of the current system, and the very real risk of COVID entering the Australian community through maritime supply chains.

“There is no question that this COVID safety breach is a failure of government; it shows the current approach isn’t working and highlights the urgent need for a nationally consistent approach to address the issue.”

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