THE MARITIME Union of Australia (MUA) has criticised the commitment of public funding for the Flinders Ports’ Adelaide container terminal (FACT), calling it an unsafe, unproductive, and anti-worker automation experiment.

A total of $70 million funding was announced in September this year by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) in order to help Flinders Port Holdings electrify its operations.

The investment is intended to support investigations into a transition from hybrid straddle carriers to an electric Automated Rubber Tyre Gantry crane at FACT (an Australian-first, according to CEFC), as well as the potential for shore power.

“The use of clean energy finance funds to promote the loss of jobs and an automated future for the Australian waterfront is an affront to the promise of a Just Transition on which the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was established,” the MUA said in its statement.

The MUA’s deputy national secretary, Warren Smith, said “The CEFC seems to think that highly productive human operated straddle carriers can be replaced by Automated Rubber Tyre Gantry (ARTG) cranes at the Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal”.

“This is not an investment in decarbonization. It is an investment in cutting jobs,” Mr Smith said.

The union said decarbonisation did not have to come at the expense of the removal of operators from machinery, as it claims would be the case in Adelaide if the proposal goes ahead.

The MUA further claimed an automated gantry is “way” less efficient and productive at moving containers at a terminal than straddle cranes operated by skilled Australian workers.

The union affirmed its support for the aim of decarbonisation, with the MUA’s South Australian branch secretary Brett Larkin instead promoting the option of electrified human operated straddle carriers, which he said would serve a greater purpose, protect jobs, maintain high productivity, and contribute positively to decarbonisation.

“It must be done in a manner which is socially and economically useful rather than using decarbonisation as a smokescreen for union busting and job cuts,” Mr Larkin said.

At the time of the announcement of funding, Federal energy minister Chris Bowen said, “This is a milestone project as we take early steps towards the electrification of Australian ports, beginning in South Australia”.

“This innovative partnership will enhance these ports and help support local jobs and industries,” MP Bowen said.

The MUA confirmed it has written to MP Bowen to stress to the Federal Government the “harmful, anti-social and wasteful nonsense” of port automation.