{"id":851701,"date":"2026-08-11T18:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851701\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:24:15","slug":"cruise-liner-le-jacques-cartier-passengers-boated-ashore-in-broome-amid-ongoing-port-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851701\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruise liner Le Jacques Cartier passengers boated ashore in Broome amid ongoing port strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cruise passengers in Broome have had to be ferried to shore in small boats because industrial action at Broome Port continues.<\/p>\n

Passengers of Ponant\u2019s Le Jacques Cartier could be seen being ferried to and from the cruise ship by small boats on Tuesday as it was moored in Roebuck Bay about 1.5km from the beach.<\/p>\n

While such vessels typically berth directly at Broome Port, ongoing industrial action since Friday, August 7, has forced cruise operators into alternative transfer plans.<\/p>\n

The industrial action, which is set to last until August 22, comes after the Maritime Union of Australia and the Kimberley Ports Authority failed to agree on a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.<\/p>\n

Australian Cruise Association board member and Cruise Broome chair Shayne Murray said despite the disruption to Port operations, the passenger transfers had run smoothly.<\/p>\n

The Le Jacques Cartier, a luxury liner which carries less than 200 passengers, comes equipped with its own fleet of zodiac boats that are normally used for adventure tours.<\/p>\n

\"PassengersCamera IconPassengers were taken back and forth via zodiac boats. Credit: Cain Andrews<\/p>\n

\u201cToday has gone very well. We have some good people in town who have jumped in to help out, and it\u2019s all worked very well,\u201d Mr Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs disruptive as it has been everybody has jumped in to get it done. Customers were happy. They are used to jumping in and out of zodiacs, so they were fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s just doing what it takes, so that\u2019ll be the program until it gets sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ponant\u2019sCamera IconPonant\u2019s Le Jacques Cartie was moored at Roebuck\u2019s Bay. Credit: Cain Andrews<\/p>\n

A string of ocean liners are scheduled to berth at Broome during the industrial action timeframe, including the Heritage Adventurer on Wednesday (August 12), the Seabourn Pursuit on August 14, both the Coral Adventurer and Odyssey on August 15, as well as Le Soleal on August 18 and the Coral Discoverer on August 20.<\/p>\n

Mr Murray said he expects they will all set in place similar passenger transfer plans to the Le Jacques Cartier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the way things have gone today we will stick to that plan unless the weather changes considerably, but we will adapt accordingly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCruise lines were concerned. It\u2019s a big job to do on the day but they\u2019ve accepted what\u2019s happened, and everybody is working together to get it sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ponant spokesperson said the company would continue to update passengers on the new arrangements that need to be made during the industrial action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are monitoring the protected industrial action taking place at Broome Port, which may affect stevedoring and mooring operations,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making the necessary arrangements to manage our scheduled calls to Broome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MUA and the Kimberley Ports Authority are at loggerheads following nearly a year of negotiations after the previous EBA expired in October 2025.<\/p>\n

Union leadership said the dispute revolves around time-in-lieu provisions, maintenance trade rates and cultural leave for Aboriginal workers.<\/p>\n

After initially embarking on \u201csoft\u201d action which allowed critical services to continue at the port, workers have now downed tools, stopping all operations at the port. The industrial action is expected to last for up to two weeks unless an agreement can be made earlier.<\/p>\n

A four-hour meeting at the Fair Work Commission on August 6 failed to stop the strike, which started at 1am on August 7 and is set to last up to two weeks.<\/p>\n

The two parties are set to meet again with the Fair Work Commission on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The KPA was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cruise passengers in Broome have had to be ferried to shore in small boats because industrial action at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,45],"class_list":["post-851701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851701","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=851701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}