DP World calls for circuit breaker to ports disputes

Major port operator DP World has called for the Albanese government to introduce earlier arbitration rights for stevedores to prevent economic damage such as the estimated $1.3 billion cost of ongoing industrial action by the wharfies’ union.

Corporate affairs head Blake Tierney told a Senate hearing on Monday the government’s proposed intractable bargaining law in its Closing Loopholes Bill was “inconsistent with the give and take process of bargaining and does not recognise the need for employers to change terms and conditions that are no longer applicable or out of touch with current operational needs”.