The Kanahooka single mum, a caterer on board tanker Alexander Spirit, was laid off along with all 36 crew members last July as owner Teekay Shipping replaced them with an overseas crew. 

Now, as two more Australian vessels have been replaced with foreign crews, Ms Kerin has added her voice to a union campaign against allowing Flag of Convenience (FOC) ships to work domestic routes.

“I haven’t worked on a ship since,” she said.

“I don’t think the country at large knows we’ve lost our merchant fleet.”

FOC laws means the vessel is subject to the laws of its flag nation – and crews are paid accordingly. These vessels are being allowed to operate for six months at a time in Australian waters.

The Maritime Union’s Mick Cross said the Federal Government had allowed mining giant Alcoa to replace its Australian vessel with Flag of Convenience ships, and given miner Rio Tinto permission to sack its Australian crew from the regular Gladstone-NSW route.

“The Government has allowed two profitable companies to sack its loyal, hardworking crew from two ships by granting them a licence to do so,” Mr Cross said.

“This is not even like the steelworks where the jobs are moving offshore, these jobs still exist in Australia but for some reason a ship between Port Kembla and Melbourne is being treated differently to a truck trading between the same ports.”

Ms Kerin, 54, had wanted to work another five to 10 years before retiring. But despite her crew’s “perfect” safety record, they were told it was an economic decision.

“It’s like they’re actually targeting Australian shipping,” she said.

“Why is the Federal Government doing this? These overseas companies don’t pay taxes. We pay taxes here.

“What country in the world would work against its own people, and sack its own people?”

Teekay last year said it “regretted” the redundancies.