Join us online or in person for a seminar with Dr Geraldine Fela.

Please note, this seminar will be held at the very special time of 12pm (not 11am).

Howard’s war on the waterfront

On 7 April 1998, security guards entered Patrick stevedoring shipping terminals across the country and escorted the unionised workforce out of the gates. Chris Corrigan, the managing director of Patrick Stevedores, sacked and locked out 1400 waterside workers—all of them members of the militant Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

In response to the sackings, the MUA and the broader trade union movement organised a mass industrial, political and legal campaign. Ports across the nation played host to scenes of mass public participation in picket lines, demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience.

The ‘war on the waterfront’ dominated the news cycle for a month, and transfixed a nation used to the consensus-style politics of the Hawke/Keating era. As the evidence mounted that that the first-term Howard government had not only backed Corrigan, but been intricately involved in orchestrating the lockout, community concern grew – as did pressure for a speedy resolution to the dispute. On May 7, following a High Court ruling, MUA wharfies marched back to work. The MUA had not been broken, but its members returned to the waterfront with diminished conditions. As part of the deal, the union dropped its case alleging that the government had conspired with Patricks to fire the workforce. Both sides claimed victory.

Drawing on archival evidence and oral testimony from members of the Howard government, rank-and-file wharfies and union officials, this paper will offer new insights into the government’s role in the dispute, and consider the complex outcomes and legacies of this landmark industrial and political conflict.

23rd July 2025, 12pm AEST

Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC1.108
Zoom: Click here

Dr Geraldine Fela is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. Her research and teaching traverses histories of gender and sexuality, labour, social movements and medicine. Her first book, ‘Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis’ was published by UNSW Press in July 2024. In 2024/2025 she spent a year working as a producer and in-house historian at ABC Radio National on the 6-part radio documentary series Conspiracy? War on the waterfront based on her postdoctoral research examining the 1998 waterfront dispute.

Images from the Noel Butlin Archives.