News
03.11.11

Shipping Reform - Industry Information Sessions

Good morning

As you are aware, on 9 September 2011, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, launched the Australian Government's shipping policy Stronger Shipping for a Stronger Economy.  These reforms comprise four key elements:

  •  Tax incentives to encourage investment in the Australian shipping industry;
  • A strengthened and simplified regulatory framework for access to the Australian coastal trade;
  • Establishment of an Australian International Shipping Register (AISR);
  • Establishment of a Maritime Workforce Development Forum.

Implementation of the first three of these reforms (tax, coastal trading arrangements, and the AISR) involves a substantial legislative drafting task  - it is likely that the final package will comprise five pieces of legislation.  The Minister has committed to formally releasing all legislation as Exposure Drafts for final industry comment prior to introduction into Parliament.   In the interim, we are keen to continue our dialogue with industry, thus ensuring you are kept updated on progress and to provide you with further detail on the key elements of these Bills as we work our way through the legislative drafting process.  

We will be holding two industry sessions in Canberra on 10th and 30th  November.  If you are interested in attending these sessions, it would be appreciated if you could hold these dates in your calendar.  We realise that this is quite short notice for this first session, however as you would appreciate this is a major  drafting task and we wish to ensure that we are in a position to provide you with the most up to date information on the status of these reforms. 

The first session on 10th November will address the proposed new coastal trading arrangements and the tax incentives.  I will email a more detailed agenda later today along with venue and RSVP details. I will also provide further details regarding the session on the 30th November. 

Further information regarding the reforms can be found at the following link:

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/maritime/shipping_reform/

Pauline Sullivan, General Manager, Shipping Policy Reform

Department of Infrastructure and Transport, CANBERRA ACT 2600