By Adam Hanieh
Strange as it sounds, plans to upgrade Australian railways are likely to lead to a big increase in road traffic. And they are certain to result in a massive loss of jobs.
Like most other public utilities in Australia today, the rail freight system is in the throes of privatisation. But exactly what this will mean is unknown to most of the public.
In 1975 the Whitlam government passed the Australian Railways Act, which was an attempt to buy the non-urban rail systems for the Commonwealth. Only South Australia and Tasmania responded to this initiative. On March 1, 1978, Australian National Railways was formed by merging the old Commonwealth, SA and Tasmanian systems.
The Hawke government carried out a massive rationalisation of Australian National throughout the 1980s. This was done through the old catch-cries of natural attrition, changed work practices and voluntary redundancies. The work force declined from 15,000 in 1978 to
5500 today.
The Hawke government also set up a new body called the National Rail Freight Corporation, later renamed the National Rail Corporation (NRC). All infrastructure and assets from interstate rail were transferred to this body, in which the federal government and the state governments were major shareholders. It was given over $100 million by the federal government.
This body was envisaged from the outset as a gift to big business. It aimed to be profitable by end of five years, after which it would be put on the market and sold to the highest bidder. The NRC aims to take all interstate freight from Australian National.
This has particularly dramatic ramifications for South Australia. Most of the interstate railway is of standard gauge. The exception is the Adelaide-Melbourne line, which is broad gauge. The NRC plans to standardise the Adelaide-Melbourne line.
However, the plans to standardise the line do not include standardising the branch lines (the lines between wheat silos and the main track). Considering that 40% of South Australia's grain traffic comes from the east of the state and that this would no longer be able to be transported by rail, it means a massive increase in road transport.
Denis White, vice-president of the Public Transport Union told Green Left Weekly that this could mean an extra 400-500 semitrailers a day on the South-Eastern Freeway in the four months of the wheat season. These semis would be winding their way through Adelaide suburbs!
If the NRC does get control of the interstate freight system, it would also mean enormous job losses. Presently ANR employs about 4500 people; the NRC only to employ intends 500. At the Islington terminal in South Australia, which presently has 110 staff, the NRC wants to unt Gambier depot would disappear, Tailem Bend would lose 45 workers, and Peterborough 60 workers.
No-one presently employed in ANR is guaranteed a job in the NRC. There will be no transferring of entitlements, and all superannuation benefits will be lost. Someone who has been employed 10 years at ANR, if they are lucky enough to get a job with the NRC, will start again from day one.
There are about 8500 locomotive drivers nationally, about 5000 of whom work in the non-suburban area. The NRC plans to run it with only 710 workers — 4000 jobs lost nationally!
The NRC also plans to subcontract all maintenance work to the private sector.
The NRC is getting a helping hand from the ACTU. An enterprise agreement was reached between the NRC and unions one week before the federal election. Without any membership consultation, it agreed upon longer working hours and multi-skilling (each worker is to do the work of up to five other skill classifications). Railway shunters have applied for jobs at freight terminals and been refused because they are not "multi-skilled".
One example of the effect these new work practices have had occurred at Acacia Ridge terminal in Queensland. Trains left Acacia Ridge carrying sodium cyanide, a deadly substance, particularly if it comes in contact with water. Normally, transporting this chemical requires detailed paperwork so that everyone knows what is in the train and how to handle it.
In this case the train left Acacia Ridge and arrived in NSW without anyone knowing what it was carrying. The NRC stated that it was an "isolated incident", and that the paperwork was blown away because it was a windy day!
Acacia Ridge employs 55 people, 15 of whom had no rail skills. The terminal manager was quoted as saying that he had people working there who didn't know one end of a rail container from the other.
Who will benefit from the NRC? Clearly the two major freight haulers, TNT and Mayne Nickless. These two corporations control the entire land transport system in the country — both train and truck. When the NRC is privatised there is no doubt that TNT and/or Mayne Nickless will end up owning it.
The NRC is designed to operate only 25% of rail tasks — all interstate and freight transport. This happens to be the most profitable primarily because it consists of import-export freight in sea containers, which must run to a very tight schedule.
The Public Transport Union executive has passed a resolution calling for an examination by all concerned parties of the consequences of non-integration between ANR and the NRC. This was endorsed by all ANR unions and the South Australian Trades and Labor Council. The federal government has not yet responded.