{"id":850051,"date":"2026-08-10T08:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T08:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850051\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T08:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T08:38:13","slug":"carnival-allegations-prompt-anti-slavery-commissioner-calls-for-cruise-crew-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850051\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnival allegations prompt Anti-Slavery Commissioner calls for cruise crew protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner says crew on foreign cruise ships need greater protections and that they should be treated on par with Australian workers.<\/p>\n

An ABC News investigation last week uncovered allegations from crew onboard Carnival cruise ships of paltry pay and shocking living conditions.<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers alleged extreme working hours, medical neglect and that they were forced to eat rotten buffet leftovers. Carnival denies the allegations.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Chris Evans says change is needed in the legal protections for workers on foreign-flagged cruise ships in Australia. (ABC News: Andrew Altree-Williams)<\/p>\n

Currently, foreign-flagged cruise ships do not need to comply with the Fair Work Act when travelling between Australian ports, due to an exemption from licensing requirements.<\/p>\n

It was introduced as a “temporary” measure in 1998, and has been renewed every few years since.<\/p>\n

“Fundamentally the situation ought to be that ships that are working through Australian ports ought to be applying conditions that are on a par with Australian conditions,” Anti-Slavery Commissioner Chris Evans said.<\/p>\n

Asked if the exemption should be rolled back, Mr Evans said, “I think some change in this area is long overdue.”<\/p>\n

Mr Evans was appointed the inaugural Anti-Slavery Commissioner by the Albanese government in 2024 after serving as immigration minister and workplace relations minister in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

One contract seen by the ABC shows that some workers are paid $US23.26 ($AU33) a day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (ABC News: Jasper Wells)<\/p>\n

‘People felt abused on the ship’<\/p>\n

Several crew members working on Carnival’s Australian ships told the ABC they worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week for almost all of their nine-month contracts.<\/p>\n

A contract seen by the ABC from 2025 showed one worker being paid just $33 a day.<\/p>\n

According to the maritime union, most staff are contract workers from Africa and South East Asia.<\/p>\n

Punishing conditions face Carnival crew<\/a><\/p>\n

Passengers boarding a Carnival cruise ship are promised a world of endless food, relaxation and oceanic luxury. But for the crew, life is vastly different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Fundamentally, they are employing people from countries with very low wages rates and they’re getting people prepared to work for conditions that we regard as unacceptable,” Mr Evans said.<\/p>\n

“There’s got to be some change.”<\/p>\n

Labor Senator Tony Sheldon went onboard a Carnival ship last month to investigate similar claims.<\/p>\n

He said his conversations with dozens of crew backed up the allegations reported by the ABC, including wages less than $3 an hour, crew paying for bottled water and long working days.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Tony Sheldon says he spoke to dozens of crew members onboard a Carnival ship. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)<\/p>\n

“These are guys operating like modern day pirates, but instead of raiding other ships, they’re plundering their own crew,” Senator Sheldon said.<\/p>\n

Carnival rejected the allegations made by crew about working conditions and treatment.<\/p>\n

“AMSA, Australia’s maritime compliance regulator, has carried out surprise inspections of our three ships in recent weeks \u2014 and cleared Carnival on each occasion,” Carnival said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The company also said it followed the Maritime Labour Convention, and referred the ABC to a statement provided in February<\/a>, which said, “Carnival has nothing to hide.”<\/p>\n

Senator Sheldon said the company needed to respect the crew’s right to collective bargaining under the Maritime Labour Convention, to which Australia was a signatory.<\/p>\n

Carnival has accused the maritime union<\/a> of using crew as “props” to increase its membership.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner Chris Evans says change is “long overdue”. (ABC News: Jasper Wells)<\/p>\n

“It looks like Carnival has a floating holiday for passengers whilst having a floating sweatshop for the crew with no voice,” Senator Sheldon, formerly secretary of the Transport Workers Union, said.<\/p>\n

“It became quite clear that people felt abused on the ship.”Exemption up for renewal<\/p>\n

The Anti-Slavery Commissioner said there was no reason that foreign-flagged cruises should be able to undercut the costs of worker wages through the exemption, which he said gave them an advantage over competitors that could not use it.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“If they’re working out of Australian ports they ought to be meeting those Australian conditions, and they certainly should be meeting those international conditions that are expected,” Mr Evans said.<\/p>\n

The findings of a review into the Coastal Trading Act, which facilitates the exemption, were handed to the government at the end of last year and are not yet public.<\/p>\n

The exemption is due to expire at the end of December, and a spokesperson for Transport Minister Catherine King, who is responsible for the exemption, said the minister would decide whether to renew the exemption before then.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the exemption recognised “the importance to Australians and our economy of the cruise sector”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They said it recognised the difference in labour laws in the global cruise industry, but that it did not undermine international labour rights conventions.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner says crew on foreign cruise ships need greater protections and that they should be treated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[420814,64,63,184847,184846,30325,268404,58725,44,6771,3792],"class_list":["post-850051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anti-slavery-commissioner","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carnival","tag-carnival-cruises","tag-chris-evans","tag-cruise-ships","tag-fair-work-act","tag-news","tag-tourism","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}