Government to stop ship rorts

Move to stem tide of foreign shipping on our coastal highways

The Federal Government announced new measures to stop the rorting and abuse of the ship permit system in June.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has announced changes to ministerial guidelines for the Single Voyage Permit (SVP) that provide for stakeholders, including the Maritime Union to be consulted on coastal ship permit applications. This will help the union keep a lookout for abuses which deny Australian-licensed ships the right to carry Australian coastal cargo.

These rorts include:

• collusion between exporters and foreign ship operators on the timing of permit applications

• overstating the size of cargo requirements, and unreasonable conditions (such as the lowest international freight rate)

• calling for urgent shipments when no Australian ship is in port.

"The changes will help close the many loopholes that have turned the SVP system into a rubber stamp process, carried on behind closed doors," said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "The system had been abused to the point where foreign vessels were taking over domestic routes. This is not in our national interest."

The changes reflect the government response to a key proposal in the union submission to the shipping inquiry - that both maritime unions and the Australian Shipowners Association can comment on permit applications and provide data on whether a permit should be granted.

As well the government has accepted the union provision for permit data to vbe posted on the Department of Transport website covering SVPs and CVPs for analysis.

The government announcement comes on the back of new data highlighting an alarming drop in cargo ships owned or operated by Australian companies. At the same time there has been a 56.4 per cent jump in foreign flagged ships carrying Australian coastal cargo.

New report





The new official data contrasts the record amount of coastal cargo crossing the nation's wharves in 2006-07 with the continuing decline in the Australian trading fleet to less than 100 cargo ships owned or operated by Australians. Less than half of these are Australian flagged.

According to the Australian sea freight 2006-07 report, coastal freight, including tonnages loaded and unloaded at Australian ports, displayed a year-on-year increase of 5.6 per cent. Based on cargo loaded, the coastal fleet task amounted to 126 million tonne/kilometres, an increase of 3.4 per cent from 2005-06. But while our coastal trade has never been busier, the Australian coastal trading fleet decreased by nine. What's more, the number of voyages carrying cargo between Australian ports undertaken by foreign-flagged ships jumped by 56.4 per cent between 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said these figures demonstrated the need for policies to reinvigorate an Australian shipping industry.

The Australian sea freight 2006-07 report was prepared by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), based on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and port authorities and corporations. 





This first move to refloat Australian shipping comes as an inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport, Regional and Local Government Development into coastal shipping policy and regulation is finalising its recommendations on ways to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the sector. 



 The Committee will report in October (see MUA submission opposite).

Australian sea freight 2006-07 can be downloaded from www.bitre.gov.au