Carnival, the only major cruise company operating full-time in Australia, said the Carnival Adventure and Carnival Luminosa would be pulled from the Australian market. The Carnival Encounter and Carnival Splendor will remain.
Other major operators, including Disney, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean, have already withdrawn their full-time ships from Australia.
Maritime historian Chris Frame described the decision as economic. "Australia is an end-of-the-line destination, and it's a huge investment," he said. He pointed to higher berthing fees, refuelling costs, provisioning expenses and strict biosecurity rules, as well as limited cruise infrastructure, as factors making it hard for cruises to operate profitably. He noted the ships are assets that "can always be redeployed somewhere else more profitable".
The announcement follows the extension this month of a decades-old temporary exemption that allows cruise ships to bypass Australian labour laws, with new worker protections added for the first time. Earlier this year, an ABC News investigation reported worker allegations of 12-hour days, seven days a week, medical neglect, unsafe drinking water and wages below $3 an hour. Carnival denied the allegations.
Carnival's country manager, Peter Little, said in a statement that the company had "greater exposure to changes in local market and operating conditions" than other cruise lines. Carnival did not respond to requests for further comment.
Jake Field of the Maritime Union of Australia disputed the company's reasoning, saying this was the third time Carnival had threatened to withdraw from Australia and that it was a negotiating tactic. "There are 80 cruise vessels that are scheduled to come to Australia, only four of them don't have collective agreements with their crews, and those are the four Carnival ships," he said.