18 September 2014
Coastal shipping overhaul to end 'Labor's union sop'
The Abbott Government will today push for an “urgent overhaul” of the nation’s shipping freight trade, aiming to change what it calls Labor’s “flawed, bureaucratic and protectionist” licensing system for ships moving cargo from one port to another.
The plans will make it easier for foreign ships to work Australia’s coastline, amid warnings by companies that it is cheaper to move goods from Asia than from port to port.
Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss, in a speech on the government’s reform agenda, will say that coastal trading arrangements urgently need to change and that Labor’s “sop to the maritime unions is costing jobs”.
Mr Truss will release figures on sea freight showing there were almost 1000 fewer coastal voyages in the first year of Labor’s licensing system. The figures also show that almost two million fewer tonnes of freight were moved by foreign-flagged vessels with temporary licenses that year.
“Shipping needs to be treated as a vital part of our national transport system — not a failed jobs-for-the-boys scheme,” Mr Truss will tell the Shipping Australia conference in Sydney.