THE FEDERAL Government is increasing the transparency of temporary coastal trading licensing decisions, which it believes is an important step in supporting the domestic shipping industry.
Coastal trading is the movement of cargo or passengers for commercial purposes on vessels between ports in different Australian states and territories.
The Australian Government regulates this trade by granting licences enabling vessels to engage in coastal trading.
MP Catherine King, the minister for transport, said greater detail on delegate decisions will now be published quarterly, including useful data on the numbers of temporary licences granted, cargo types, load ports and discharge ports.
MP King said this information will assist stakeholders to respond to temporary licence applications, informing decision makers about the impact on a business or service offering of granting a temporary coastal trading licence.
“Improving the transparency of decision-making under Australia’s Coastal Trading Act is one of many actions the Albanese Government is taking to revitalise Australia’s maritime sector,” MP King said.
“We’ve launched our Strategic Fleet pilot program which is currently open for tender; our review of the Coastal Trading Act and Shipping Registration Act is underway; and we’ve introduced new maritime skills and training initiatives to strengthen maritime in Australia.”
Quarterly reports are available for review on the Australian Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts website.
