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

My home state of Tasmania is an island state, and therefore the issue of shipping is of vital importance to our future prosperity. Coastal shipping and international shipping are key enablers in ensuring that quality Tasmanian produce and manufactured goods are able to reach domestic and international markets. Coastal shipping is at the heart of our competitiveness and our ability to ensure that Tasmania optimises the benefits of the trifecta of free trade agreements that were negotiated by the coalition in 2014, and all of the indicators are encouraging. Demand for Tasmanian seafood and agricultural products continues to grow. The $60 million in federal funding announced recently for irrigation schemes will fund five new schemes, providing 95 per cent water certainty and allowing the conversion of marginal land to something much more productive. Efficient and readily available coastal shipping is therefore essential to ensure that our clean, fresh, quality produce will grace growing Asian markets from India to China.

That is why Labor's meddling in coastal shipping while in government has proven to be such a disaster for our industry. That is why the government is moving to untangle the mess of regulations that undermine the viability of coastal shipping. It is undoubtable that under Labor the cost of shipping went up and the number of Aussie ships went down. Labor presided over a halving of our major coastal shipping fleet, with coastal licences plummeting from 30 vessels in 2006-07 to 15 in 2013-14. From 2010 to 2030, under what Labor has in place, Australia's overall freight task is expected to grow by 80 per cent but coastal shipping will only increase by 15 per cent. Instead of helping to revitalise Australian shipping, Labor's Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act has badly hurt the industry. Over the first two years of the coastal trading act, there was a 64 per cent decline in the carrying capacity of the major Australian coastal trading fleet.

I will give you a case study to demonstrate. Bell Bay Aluminium in my electorate of Bass is, sadly, one of the few businesses of its size left in northern Tasmania. Its importance cannot be overstated. It uses 25 per cent of Tasmania's total electricity, contributes $700 million each year to gross state product and provides over 1,000 direct or indirect jobs. The general manager is a good man, Ray Mostogl, who has won CEO Magazine's Manufacturing Executive of the Year award. Mr Mostogl has constantly called for something to be done to fix Labor's coastal shipping act. He has said publicly that after Labor introduced the coastal trading act in 2012:

… BBA faced … a 63 per cent increase—

in freight rates. He says:

This … led to greatly reduced shipping options and competition …

Critically, he identifies sea freight as 'one of the key means to keep the Bell Bay smelter viable'. Mr Mostogl draws a clear link between Labor's legislative gift to the MUA, the increased costs that followed and the impact on the very viability of his company. Mr Mostogl has revealed that leaving ships idle at ports for a day before loading can commence, as demanded by the MUA, costs foreign vessels about $10,000 a day and Australian ships more than $20,000 a day. He points out 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 internationally in the Southern Hemisphere rates are about half that, at $17.50 a tonne. Mr Mostogl is one of the many stakeholders demanding reform to increase flexibility and affordability for users of coastal shipping. So while the member for Grayndler and his MUA mates revel in the shrine that has been established for him by Paddy Crumlin from the MUA, and the MUA are no doubt thrilled at this legislative gift that is given to them, it has been bad news for my home state of Tasmania.

Labor has been cheered on by the Greens, who in the Launceston Examiner denigrated Bell Bay Aluminium and three other major industrial companies in Tasmania as having:

… exaggerated … because they want a handout.

There is nothing you can say about that, Mr Deputy Speaker, except that it is callous indifference to jobs in my electorate of Bass. Shame on them for these coastal shipping regulations. I will be strongly supporting the coalition's repeal of these appalling Labor coastal shipping laws.

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