Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler asked about agriculture, so I'm going to tell him about how the reforms will benefit the agricultural sector. Australia's agriculture sector plays a key role in our nation's prosperity, and I think everybody in this parliament should know that. They're doing it tough at the moment; the drought's really biting hard. Farmers and agricultural producers depend on Australia's coastal trading system. Since 2012 the agriculture sector has been significantly impacted by the regulatory burden imposed by the coastal trading system. The Productivity Commission's report into the regulation of agriculture found that the current coastal shipping framework leads to additional costs—higher costs—for farm businesses that are reliant on sea freight. The report noted that the high shipping costs have seen some businesses move operations overseas.

These reforms will reduce the regulatory burden on the agricultural sector and increase the attractiveness of shipping as a viable transport option for agricultural businesses that need to move their product to market. Tolerances will be expanded, and the ability to vary licences will be streamlined. The coastal trading act currently contains strict tolerance provisions for voyages under temporary licences. This means that a shipper has to apply for a variation to their temporary licence if they are going to move their cargo more than five days before or after the approved loading date, and also if they load 20 per cent more or less than the approved amount of cargo.

In its response to the department's discussion paper released in March 2017, Wilmar Sugar provided an example of how unwieldy and inefficient this system is. In one year alone, one of Wilmar's business units—and I know the assistant minister at the table will be very interested to hear this—had to apply to vary more than 50 per cent of the voyages granted on a temporary licence because of the system's strict tolerance provisions, which are out of step with the shipping industry and put Australian businesses at a disadvantage. We don't want to see that. Our changes will significantly increase those limits—to 30 days and 200 per cent—before a variation is needed.

With that, I move:

That the question be now put.

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