Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Bell Bay Aluminium, in my electorate of Bass, is, sadly, one of the few businesses of its size left in northern Tasmania. Its importance simply cannot be overstated. It uses 25 per cent of Tasmania's total electricity; it contributes $700 million year on year into the Tasmanian economy; and it is responsible for supporting 1,000 direct or indirect jobs. The General Manager of Bell Bay Aluminium, Ray Mostogl, is a very good bloke, a capable bloke. Last Friday, he won The CEO Magazine's Manufacturing Executive of the Year Award. Ray Mostogl is one of those people who is not murmuring; he is screaming for change in the coastal shipping area. He said publicly that, after Labor introduced the coastal trading act in 2012, 'Bell Bay Aluminium faced a 63 per cent increase in its freight rates.' He has said that this has, 'led to greatly reduced shipping options and competition'. And critically, he identifies sea freight as, 'one of the key means to keep the Bell Bay aluminium smelter viable'.

There is not a murmur, as the member for Franklin says, about coastal shipping; it is a scream from manufacturers and businesses in our home state of Tasmania. Mr Mostogl draws a clear link between Labor's coastal shipping regulations, the impact on shipping costs and the direct viability of his company in Tasmania. So you might dismiss these people, member for Franklin, as irrelevant to the debate, but we take them a little more seriously on this side of the House.

Mr Mostogl has revealed that leaving ships idle at ports for a day—as demanded by the MUA before loading can commence—costs international ships $10,000 a day and Australian ships up to $20,000 a day. He points out, as the member for Lyons did, that freight rates from Tasmania to Queensland in the first year of Labor's coastal trading act rose dramatically from $18.20 a tonne in 2011 to $29.70 a tonne in 2012—while international rates elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere are about half that at $17.50. Mr Mostogl is just one of those stakeholders demanding change in this important policy area.

I wonder what the member for Franklin, the member for Grayndler and the member for Denison might say to the 130 people at Bell Bay Aluminium who lost their jobs in the last two years of the Labor-Green government, partly as a result of this ridiculous change. What would they say to those people? I am sure they would flick them onto the Greens leader, Christine Milne, who said in last Saturday's Examiner, where she denigrated Bell Bay Aluminium and the three other major industrial companies in Tasmania as, 'exaggerators wanting a handout'. They are not exaggerators; they are taxpayers and employers of people in our state, member for Franklin, and you should be ashamed of supporting this coastal trading change that the member for Grayndler made. I express my absolute disgust at what we are hearing from the member for Franklin when it comes to Tasmanian jobs.

As Tasmania's representative on the coalition's deregulation committee, I want to continue removing bad Labor-Green legislation from the productive components of our economy. I want to roll back these special deals with the MUA and the union handlers, which have contributed to reduced productivity and a growing disparity between domestic shipping costs and shipping from overseas.

I know the member for Grayndler and his offsider, the member for Franklin, revel in the shrine that has been established for them on the MUA website by Paddy Crumlin—that wonderful shrine to the member for Grayndler. But he would get a different reception in Tasmania—and so would you, Member for Franklin—if you ventured outside of Hobart and talked to some of these big producers about what they think about coastal shipping regulations.

Under Labor's protectionist permit system, there were almost 1,000 fewer coastal voyages and almost two million fewer tonnes of freight moved by foreign vessels in 2012-13. There has been a huge decline in coastal freight loaded in 2012-13 compared to five years earlier under the Howard government. It is the knee-jerk policies we saw from Labor with the live cattle trade that cost jobs in the cattle industry and, as the Productivity Commission has shown, are costing jobs in Tasmania. We are determined to roll back these changes, release our coastal trading potential and support Tasmania's economic revitalisation.

Unlike the Greens, the member for Franklin, the member for Grayndler and the member for Denison, the Tasmanian Liberals will continue to stand up for jobs in our state and push for urgent changes to Labor's coastal trading act.

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