Policy, Regulatory, Taxation, Administrative and Funding Priorities for Australian Shipping
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The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee Policy, regulatory, taxation, administrative and funding priorities for Australian shipping December 2020 © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-76093-174-2 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra Members Membership during the 46th Parliament Chair Senator Glenn Sterle ALP, WA Deputy Chair Senator Susan McDonald NAT, QLD Members Senator Alex Gallacher ALP, SA Senator Gerard Rennick LP, QLD Senator Janet Rice (to 6.10.20) AG, VIC Senator Peter Whish-Wilson (from 6.10.20) AG, TAS Senator Nita Green (from 12.6.20) ALP, QLD Membership during the 45th Parliament Chair Senator Glenn Sterle ALP, WA Deputy Chair Senator Barry O'Sullivan NAT, QLD Members Senator Slade Brockman LP, WA Senator Anthony Chisholm ALP, QLD Senator Malarndirri McCarthy ALP, NT Senator Janet Rice AG, VIC Participating Members Senator Alex Gallacher ALP, SA Senator Rex Patrick CA, SA iii Secretariat Gerry McInally, Committee Secretary Dr Jane Thomson, Committee Secretary Tim Watling, Committee Secretary James Strickland, Principal Research Officer Sarah Redden, Principal Research Officer Christopher Sautelle, Principal Research Officer Trish Carling, Senior Research Officer Joshua Wrest, Senior Research Officer Matthew Hughes, Research Officer Michael Fisher, Research Officer Jason See, Administration Officer Kate Morris, Administration Officer PO Box 6100 Telephone: (02) 6277 3511 Parliament House Fax: (02) 6277 5811 CANBERRA ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] iv Contents Members ............................................................................................................................................. iii List of Recommendations ................................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1—Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 Referral .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Conduct of the inquiry ........................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 2 References ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Structure of the report ......................................................................................................................... 2 An overview of shipping .................................................................................................................... 3 International shipping .............................................................................................................. 3 A brief history of international shipping and trade ................................................. 4 Global trade patterns..................................................................................................... 6 Australian shipping .................................................................................................................. 6 The history of shipping policy in Australia .................................................................................... 7 Recent shipping industry reforms ................................................................................................... 10 Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committees' inquiries ................................. 14 Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 ....................................................................... 15 Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Amendment Bill 2017 .................. 15 Increasing use of so-called Flag of Convenience shipping in Australia ......................... 16 Chapter 2—Australian shipping .................................................................................................... 19 Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Coastal shipping ................................................................................................................................. 19 Australia's coastal shipping framework .............................................................................. 21 Coastal trading licences .............................................................................................. 21 Regulation of cruise shipping in Australia .............................................................. 23 Regulations in other jurisdictions around the world ......................................................... 23 Views on Australia's coastal shipping ................................................................................ 25 International shipping ....................................................................................................................... 27 International trade routes and cargo shipping ................................................................... 28 Australian International Shipping Register ........................................................................ 28 v Views on international shipping .......................................................................................... 29 Part X of the Competition and Consumer Act ........................................................ 29 Australian International Shipping Register ............................................................. 30 Chapter 3—Promoting shipping as an effective mode of transport ........................................ 33 Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Suggestions to promote the use of shipping .................................................................................. 33 Improve flexibility .................................................................................................................. 33 Improve interactions with other modes and reduce intermodal constraints ................ 34 Create a level playing field across modes ........................................................................... 35 Support resource and energy shipping ............................................................................... 38 Support Tasmanian shipping ................................................................................................ 39 Support cruise shipping ......................................................................................................... 39 Suggestions to promote the use of Australian ships and crews .................................................. 40 Reform the CT Act .................................................................................................................. 40 Prioritise Australian ships at domestic ports ...................................................................... 42 Introduce a bunker fuel rebate .............................................................................................. 43 Reform the Shipping Registration Act ................................................................................. 43 Require ships to register ............................................................................................. 43 Reform seafarers' remuneration ........................................................................................... 44 Improve wage parity between domestic and foreign-crewed ships .................... 44 Increase maritime tax incentives .......................................................................................... 45 Reform the foreign crew visa system ................................................................................... 46 An overview of the foreign crew visa system ......................................................... 46 Views on the foreign crew visa system .................................................................... 47 Develop a strategic fleet ......................................................................................................... 47 Develop a maritime cluster ................................................................................................... 48 An overview of maritime clusters ............................................................................. 48 Australia's shipbuilding industry ............................................................................. 49 Views on developing a maritime cluster .................................................................. 50 Committee view and recommendations ......................................................................................... 51 Level playing field across modes ......................................................................................... 51 Resource and energy shipping .............................................................................................. 51 vi Tasmanian shipping