Mr PALLAS (Tarneit) — I wish  to refer  to the  Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the  2011-12 budget estimates, part 1, section 12.4.3,  page 116, which discusses  the  freight access charge into the port of Melbourne. The Premier has made comment in  this place,  subsequent to  the passage of the port licence fee legislation through this Parliament, that it  would be a disaster if anybody opposed what  is supported by industry.  Unfortunately that is  far from the case,  and industry  is quite  outspoken in  terms of its opposition to this charge. Shipping Australia has  told  Lloyd’s List that all the port licence fee has done  is exchange one industry opponent, the trucking industry, for another, the maritime industry. Shipping Australia has written to the Port of Melbourne Corporation and said it remains:

  … totally opposed to an imposition of  this  tax  because  raising  taxes in  relation to the supply chain is  a much more costly way than the  use of funds  raised  elsewhere by normal state government taxation to  fund  infrastructure  projects.

  There is no link between  the  proposed  licence  fee  and  any  incentive  to  increase  productivity  in  the  port.  We  believe  that the  fee  should  be  restructured  so  that the implementation  of  this tax  can  drive change and  promote efficiency.

  … our strong recommendation [is] that the tax should be withdrawn …

The Australian Bulk Alliance has  joined  the  chorus  and indicated that it too opposes this tax. The Victorian Farmers Federation has described  this  tax as a tax on trade and has attacked the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security for ‘not  backing agriculture’. We have also seen the Weekly Times report  that  the Australian Bulk  Alliance  chief executive, Simon  McNair, has warned  that  the charge would add another 80 cents to a dollar per tonne to the cost of exporting grain, which is 15 to 20 per cent of the traders’ profits. Other industry groups have also  joined the chorus.  In a  Weekly Times  article of  14 March,  Murray Goulburn Co-operative  indicated  the $2 per  tonne  port levy would  cost  that company  $600  000  a year.  Shipping  Australia chairman  Ken  Fitzpatrick  has described this port licence fee as the ‘nail in the coffin’, and chief executive Llew Russell has described it as a tax on trade. He is quoted as saying:

  This  will put extra costs on the supply chain and  have unwanted  impacts …  What is worse, with this tax there is no incentive to increase productivity.

  Farmers will be among the hardest hit.

The Australian  Peak  Shippers Association  has  described the  tax  as  totally unacceptable. Bega Cheese executive chairman Barry Irvin  has said the Victorian government’s decision to  increase  port costs will  increase the cost of  doing business. The  Tasmanian infrastructure  minister, David O’Byrne,  has expressed serious  concerns about the  tax  and  gone to the  extent  of  saying it is  ‘a Victorian  tax that will be met to a large extent  by the  Tasmanian community’. The  Tasmanian Freight Logistics Council has said ‘it  may  be  the  straw  that breaks the  camel’s  back  for some Tasmanian businesses’. Not only that, but on top  of  Maersk  Line shipping  criticising  the tax, the  Tasmanian  Chamber of Commerce and Industry — —

  Mr Clark — On  a point of order, Acting Speaker, I have been listening to the honourable member for quite a while and  have not  picked up  a single reference for  some  minutes  to  a  committee  report. While  he is  able  to  make  some broad-ranging remarks, he does have to relate his remarks to a committee report.

  Mr PALLAS  —  I  accept the point of order and  refer  to the comments by the Minister  for  Ports recorded on page 7 of the  transcript  of  the  committee’s hearing on 10 May 2011 in which he said that the  freight infrastructure  charge ‘would  discriminate unfairly against regional and rural exporters’. Essentially this submission is  demonstrating that there  is  a widespread level  of concern about the discriminatory effect upon regions and exporters in particular.

Even the Liberal Party is attacking this tax.

Liberal  Senator  Richard  Colbeck in his media release on the port licence fees said that  the  ‘Liberal  Senate team  understands  why the prospect  of  higher shipping  costs  has  caused angst’  for  the business  industry.  Rene Hidding, Tasmanian Liberal infrastructure spokesperson, has described  this  as  ‘a money grab’ and said it ‘would likely  have a major impact on  both Spirit of Tasmania passenger  fares and sea freight  rates’. So this chorus  of opposition includes the Tasmanian  Farmers and Graziers Association,  and we even have lawyers, Hunt and Hunt,  who are  proposing to give advice on how direct  providers can  avoid liability  and flow-on  of the  costs  to  customers.  This  tax  is bad,  it is discriminatory and it serves no useful purpose.

See Tim’s speech in Hansard here.