Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, I present the committee’s report entitled Rebuilding Australia’s coastal shipping industry: inquiry into coastal shipping policy and regulation, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

As Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, it gives me great pleasure to table the inquiry report Rebuilding Australia’s coastal shipping industry. It is no surprise, given that we are a vast island nation, that our economy is highly dependent on sea trade. However, while almost all of our export trade is moved by ship, domestic freight is predominantly transported by road and rail, with shipping representing 24 per cent of the total freight task in 2004-05.

The Australian coastal shipping industry has been in decline for some time. Increasingly, foreign vessels have been employed to carry goods around the Australian coast to the detriment of the Australian coastal shipping fleet. The Australian registered trading fleet has reduced from 75 to 46 ships in the decade from 1996 to 2006. With Australia’s freight task set to double by 2020, there is significant room for growth in Australia’s shipping industry.

The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has signalled a clear wish on the part of the government that Australia’s coastal shipping industry be revitalised. This committee was tasked with reviewing policy and regulatory arrangements for the coastal shipping sector with a view to developing a more competitive and sustainable Australian coastal shipping industry. This report identifies strategies to grow the coastal shipping industry, including employment in the sector, and considers the implications of coastal shipping policy for defence support, maritime safety and security and environmental sustainability. In undertaking the inquiry, the committee has been encouraged by the work that has been done between the industry and the unions to move the industry forward.

Obviously, the major reason for revitalisation of our domestic shipping export industry is an economic one. A renewed domestic shipping industry can provide new job opportunities and grow the maritime sector. A renewed domestic shipping industry can also help reduce land transport bottlenecks, infrastructure constraints and impacts on the environment. But there is no denying that the industry faces many challenges.

In order to be competitive in the transport market, it is essential that shipping is competitive against road and rail. It must be able to offer a reliable and affordable service. Limited shipping infrastructure and skills shortages throughout the industry are challenges the industry must overcome. Revitalisation of the Australia’s coastal shipping sector begins with regulatory reform. The committee has recommended reform of part VI of the Navigation Act 1912, the Navigation (Coasting Trade) Regulations 2007 and the Ministerial Guidelines for Granting Licences and Permits to Engage in Australia’s Domestic Shipping to better reflect current government policy.

These regulatory reforms should underpin a new policy framework which, the committee recommends, should include: a single national approach to maritime safety for commercial vessels; an optional tonnage tax regime in Australia that is linked to mandatory training requirements; reintroduction of accelerated depreciation arrangements; a one-year review of the maritime crew visa; amending the Seafarers’ Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1992 and the Occupational Health and Safety (Marine Industry) Act 1993; creating a national port development plan to address Australia’s current and potential capacity constraints; creating a national maritime training authority and the introduction of a national training vessel; reviewing of section 23AG of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936; and establishing a reform implementation group to implement any future Commonwealth government reforms.

This report is focused on revitalising the Australian shipping industry. In the time permitted it is not possible for me to go into detail on each of the recommendations, but central to the report is the introduction of an optional tonnage tax and accelerated depreciation which are designed to encourage growth in the sector. Such schemes have proven very successful in revitalising the shipping industries in countries such as the United Kingdom.

In presenting this report, I wish to thank my colleagues on the standing committee. I particularly want to thank the deputy chair, the member for Hinkler, who has a longstanding interest in Australia’s freight task. I thank him very much for his support and the bipartisan support of the committee. I also want to thank committee members. Particularly I want to thank the committee’s secretariat, led by Ms Janet Holmes and latterly Mr Richard Selth, but I also want to acknowledge Michael Crawford, who undertook the bulk of the work on the complex inquiry in a very short time frame. I also acknowledge the work of Katie Ellis, Jazmine Rakic and Emma Martin.

The revitalisation of our coastal shipping industry has long been a topic for discussion and review. I want to acknowledge the many participants in the inquiry for their passion for this industry, which was evident throughout their appearances before the committee. Previous reviews have raised significant expectations on the part of industry participants. It is the hope of the committee that this inquiry provides the opportunity for the government to significantly revitalise Australian coastal shipbuilding into a much more competitive and sustainable industry. (Time expired)

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to support the Chair of the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the member for Ballarat, and also on behalf of the coalition acknowledge the work of the secretariat: Janet Holmes and then Richard Selth; Michael Crawford, the inquiry secretary; Katie Ellis, Emma Martin and Jazmine Rakic. I would also like to acknowledge the work of my colleagues and the effort that they put into this.

You would think that a country like Australia, sitting as it does in the southernmost part of the world, would have developed great expertise in shipping. You would think that that would be the one area in which we excelled. If we look down through the history of shipping, right back to the Phoenicians and in more recent times, in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, to the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the British, we see that all of them enhanced their national standing, their terms of trade, their political influence and their national wealth by the expertise of their national shipping fleets. I think there is a lesson in there for us. There was a time when we had quite a vibrant shipping industry, but I think we did two things: we overregulated it and we costed it out of existence. This inquiry looked at some of those things, and I felt it did a very good job.

Our terms of reference dealt with the characteristics of Australian shipping, regulatory arrangements, the need for a skilled workforce, coastal shipping policy and the competitive nature of our shipping industry, as well as naval, environmental and security implications. Time does not permit detailed consideration of the report, but what emerged was a recommendation for a national approach to maritime safety. To me that was one of the key elements, because this committee and its predecessors, all the way back to when the Hon. Peter Morris chaired the committee and was largely the author of the report called Ships of shame, have all focused on that matter of maritime safety.

We recommended the reintroduction of accelerated depreciation. As a member of this committee for many years, as the member for Ballarat said, to me the thing that has always stood out as being deficient in encouraging a better charter aviation fleet and better coastal shipping has been the lack of accelerated depreciation. We also talked about a one-year review of the maritime crew visa; a national maritime training authority, which I think is most important; and a national training vessel, which brings it down to the really key elements of how our seafarers should act and be in demand on the Australian coastline. We called for section 23AG of the Income Tax Assessment Act to be reviewed. That is a very important consideration for our seafarers. Finally, we called for a group to implement the reform agenda so that this does not just slip back into the ether again. There were other aspects raised, such as single permit voyages—this is a knotty area; you cannot overenhance those without damaging the existing shipping arrangements.

One thing that stood out to me—and I certainly do not want to be misquoted on this—was that when we were cross-examining Canada Steamship Lines they said that one of the reasons that they were able to have five vessels now in Australian coastal waters was the workplace arrangements of the previous government. I said, ‘Does that mean they are paid less?’ The witness said, ‘No, they are paid more.’ The point I am making there is not that I want a reawakening of that workplace agenda but rather that I think there is a lesson to be learned—that in the future of Australia’s maritime industry we need to have EBAs that are sensitive to the needs of a specialised industry. (Time expired)

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the member for Ballarat wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a future occasion?

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.