'Strategies To Overcome Obstacles To Implementing A Maritime Welfare Levy In Australia For Assured Seafarer On-Shore Welfare Facilities' is the latest independent review and briefing note from Human Rights at Sea seeking to push for a sustainable solution for the 1.8M seafarers globally.
We should all agree that the health, wellbeing and recuperation of seafarers depends on sustainable 21st century funding for port welfare facilities.
In Australia, the perceived institutional paralysis-by-analysis and lack of decisive action is arguably preventing the delivery of this necessary service for seafarers through guaranteed fit-for-purpose onshore welfare facilities.
In 2022, Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) published a Counsel’s legal opinion highlighting the risk of Australia breaching its welfare obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) if it failed to secure sufficient long-term funding for shore-based welfare facilities. (Australia Maritime Levy Counsels Opinion Feb 2022.pdf (humanrightsatsea.org))
This opinion clearly emphasized ‘how + why’ updated legislation, favouring sustainable levy funding, could significantly improve welfare safeguards for the 500,000+ seafarers who annually arrive in Australian ports.
International advocacy by HRAS helped secure a sustainable funding model in New Zealand (Legislative Success: New Zealand Onshore Seafarer Welfare Services Sustained in Law | HRASi), but their 3-year campaign to secure a similar model in Australia failed. Why?
The attached new HRAS Briefing Note identifies the obstacles and, drawing on international precedents and current Australian policy frameworks, evaluates actionable, politically feasible, and legally robust strategic recommendations for overcoming resistance to the implementation of a maritime welfare levy in Australia.
AUTHORS
Paul MacGillivary, David Hammond Esq., AFNI
CITATION
MacGillivary, P., Hammond, D., (2025) ‘Strategies to Overcome Obstacles to Implementing a Maritime Welfare Levy in Australia’. Human Rights at Sea.
Available at: https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/strategies-overcome-obstacles-implementing-maritime-welfare-levy-australia-october-2025
ENDS.
Source: Human Rights at Sea 2025.
AI. AI was used in the research of this article before final in-person checks.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.
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