Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012. I move government amendments (1) to (19) as circulated together:

(1) Clause 6, page 6 (after line 18), after the definition of emergency licence, insert:

energy security situation: see subsection (1A).

(2) Clause 6, page 7 (after line 26), after the definition of licence, insert:

liquid fuel product means any of the following:

(a) biodiesel (within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition of that expression in the Energy Grants (Cleaner Fuels) Scheme Act 2004);

(b) liquid fuel (within the meaning of the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act 1984);

(c) liquid petrochemical (within the meaning of that Act);

(d) liquid petroleum (within the meaning of that Act);

(e) liquid petroleum product (within the meaning of that Act);

(f) petrochemical (within the meaning of that Act);

(g) petroleum (within the meaning of that Act);

(h) petroleum product (within the meaning of that Act);

  (i) refined liquid petroleum product (within the meaning of that Act).

(3) Clause 6, page 8 (lines 5 to 12), omit the definition of owner, substitute:

owner of a vessel means one or more of the following:

(a) a person who has a legal or beneficial interest in the vessel, other than as a mortgagee;

(b) a person with overall general control and management of the vessel;

(c) a person who has assumed responsibility for the vessel from a person referred to in paragraph (a) or (b).

For the purposes of paragraphs (b) and (c), a person is not taken to have overall general control and management of a vessel, or to have assumed responsibility for a vessel, merely because he or she is the master or pilot of the vessel.

(4) Clause 6, page 9 (after line 15), after subclause (1), insert:

(1A) For the purposes of this Act, an energy security situation exists if:

(a) a vessel is used to undertake a voyage authorised by a temporary licence; and

(b) the vessel is carrying a liquid fuel product; and

(c) there are special circumstances, of a kind prescribed by the regulations, requiring the vessel to load or unload a liquid fuel product at a port that is not authorised by the licence.

(5) Clause 28, page 22 (after line 17), after paragraph (2)(e), insert:

(ea) the name of the vessel (if known);

(6) Clause 34, page 25 (after line 21), after paragraph (b), insert:

(ba) if the application relates to cargo and a vessel registered in the Australian International Shipping Register—both:

  (i) whether the applicant owns the cargo and the vessel; and

  (ii) whether the cargo is to be carried on the vessel;

(7) Clause 34, page 26 (lines 4 and 5), omit "in a timely manner", substitute "on the expected loading dates or within 5 days before or after the relevant date".

(8) Clause 40, page 29 (line 10), before "the holder", insert "subject to paragraph (ca),".

(9) Clause 40, page 29 (after line 11), after paragraph (c), insert:

(ca) if a voyage authorised by the licence is not going to be undertaken—the holder of the licence must notify the Secretary, in writing, of that fact and the reasons why the voyage is not going to be undertaken;

(10) Clause 43, page 30 (line 8), at the end of subclause (1), add "other than a matter authorising a voyage that the Secretary has been notified is not going to be undertaken".

(11) Clause 43, page 30 (after line 14), after paragraph (2)(b), insert:

(ba) if the application relates to an energy security situation—be accompanied by a statutory declaration giving details of the special circumstances; and

(12) Clause 43, page 30 (after line 16), at the end of the clause, add:

(3) An application relating to a voyage authorised by a temporary licence may be made:

(a) in the case of an energy security situation—at any time:

  (i) after the notification requirements under section 61 for the voyage have been complied with; and

  (ii) before the end of the voyage; and

(b) in any other case—before the notification requirements under section 61 for the voyage have been complied with.

(13) Clause 45, page 30 (line 24), after "section 43", insert "(other than an application relating to an energy security situation)".

(14) Clause 46, page 31 (lines 30 to 32), omit subclause (4), substitute:

(4) The Minister must decide an application for variation of a temporary licence:

(a) in the case of an application relating to an energy security situation—within 24 hours of receiving the application; and

(b) in any other case—within 2 business days after the day the application is made.

(15) Page 32 (after line 4), after clause 47, insert:

47A Application taken to be granted in certain circumstances

  If the Minister has not decided an application relating to an energy security situation by the end of the period within which a decision is required under section 46, then, at the end of that period, the Minister is taken to have:

(a) granted the application; and

(b) determined that the matters specified in the application are authorised by the licence.

(16) Clause 61, page 37 (after line 9), after paragraph (b), insert:

(ba) the date of the voyage;

(17) Clause 72, page 44 (after line 5), after paragraph (c), insert:

(ca) the holder of the licence must comply with the notification requirements under section 74A;

(18) Page 44 (after line 26), after clause 74, insert:

Subdivision C—Miscellaneous

74A Voyage notification requirements for emergency licences

  The holder of an emergency licence must, at least 2 days before the actual loading date for a voyage to be undertaken under the licence, notify the Minister, in writing, of the following:

(a) the vessel to be used to undertake the voyage;

(b) the date of the voyage;

(c) the number of passengers to be carried during the voyage (if any);

(d) the kind and volume of cargo to be carried during the voyage (if any);

(e) the ports at which the passengers or cargo will be taken on board;

(f) the ports at which the passengers will disembark or the cargo will be unloaded.

Civil penalty:

(a) for an individual—50 penalty units; and

(b) for a body corporate—250 penalty units.

(19) Clause 75, page 45 (line 15), omit "each voyage undertaken under", substitute "the period of".

On 22 March 2012, the selection committee of the House of Representatives referred the shipping reform suite of bills to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications. These bills were also referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. The House of Representatives Committee on Infrastructure and Communications received 30 submissions, one supplementary submission and one exhibit to its inquiry and the committee tabled its report on 24 May 2012. The amendments to the bills are in response to issues raised by stakeholders during the parliamentary inquiries and also address other minor and technical matters.

In relation to the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012, one substantial amendment is in response to representations made by the oil companies and the Australian Institute of Petroleum. They have proposed to amend provisions in the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012 to enable fuel carriers to respond to urgent situations where there is a threat to Australia's energy security. To address this legitimate concern, the government is moving to amend the bill to include an expedited variation process for temporary licences in circumstances in which a vessel is loaded and about to sail or has already sailed and is required due to a defined energy incident to load or unload a liquid fuel product at a port not authorised by the licence. The variation will be decided within 24 hours from receipt of the application and would only apply in special circumstances to be prescribed in the regulations. These circumstances would include incidents such as unscheduled refinery outages.

To address issues raised by the sugar industry we are also making an amendment to clause 34 that will enable consideration to be given as to whether the applicant owns the cargo and owns a vessel registered in the Australian international shipping register which will be used to carry the cargo. This will encourage investment in vessels on the Australian international shipping register and support increased participation by Australian flagged vessels in the triangular trades.

Another amendment will replace the definition of 'owner' to make the definition in this bill consistent with the Navigation Amendment Bill 2012 that I introduced into the parliament just this week. To remove unnecessary regulatory burdens, the bill is also being amended to streamline the requirements relating to unused voyages and the reporting requirement for emergency licences. To remove any ambiguity, the bill will be amended to ensure that a variation of a temporary licence cannot be made after a voyage notification is provided. This provides certainty for the temporary licence holder. I commend the bill, as amended, to the House.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government has produced 19 amendments that overall make a significant improvement to the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012 and get rid of, or at least mitigate, some of the really serious objections that there were to this legislation. There was genuine concern about the inability of some freight forwarders to be able to deliver on their task at all. For instance, Sugar Australia said that they had a number of concerns about these sorts of issues and the loss of a capacity to use Australian sugar in markets in other parts of the country. For instance, it is cheaper to take sugar from Thailand to Perth, even now, than it is to take Australian sugar to Perth. But under the legislation that was proposed by the government—without these amendments—it would have been almost impossible to move Australian sugar anywhere around our coast, and so it would have been cheaper to bring it on from overseas to Melbourne rather than take Mackay sugar to Melbourne. There are still some barriers here and I will refer to them when I get to the amendments that the coalition intends to move.

One example is the movement of ethanol from place to place. Again, there are occasional shipments that are required. The government has put in place a bureaucratic process which seems to be designed to prevent anyone from getting a single-permit voyage. In fact, you cannot get them anymore; you can only get the permits five at a time. Those sorts of issues were causing concern. The government has mitigated that to some extent but I have to say that I am not convinced that there is a genuine capacity for all Australian domestic shipping operations to take advantage of this method of shipping, even when there is no alternative available.

We readily agree that if there is a suitable Australian vessel available at approximately the right time they should be given priority for the voyage, but some of the restrictions that are in place would seem to mean that if there were no Australian vessel available the only other option would be to not undertake the task at all. I will be referring to that a little bit more later on, as well.

I have to say I have been very surprised by the attitude of the member for Kennedy. He clearly has not listened to the sugar growers that he often seeks to defend. He has not listened to them, because he is putting in place and agreeing to mechanisms that are going to make it much more difficult for the Australian sugar industry to compete on the Australian market. In essence, it will be more effective to take Australian sugar overseas and use an international vessel and ship it back than it would be to take it from one port to another.

That is the kind of nonsense that is likely to occur under the arrangements that the government has put in place. I acknowledge that there are amendments here, which we will not be opposing. I hope that they will mitigate these concerns but I certainly give notice that we will be looking very closely at the operation of these measures over the years and months ahead. And if they do not work—if they do not deliver—we will be making changes.

Question agreed to.