DCN April 2019 Edition

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NEWS IN BRIEF Wharfies vote for “rolling industrial action” MILK AND HONEY BOOSTED BY INDONESIAN TRADE DEAL Australian exporters of milk, honey, beef and carrots are among those set to benefit from the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. That was the view of National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar who joined trade minister Simon Birmingham in Jakarta for the signing ceremony. “IA-CEPA will deliver improved market access for live cattle, feed grains, beef, sheepmeat, dairy, sugar, fruit, carrots, potatoes and honey,” Mr Mahar said. “Indonesia is the world’s biggest importer of Australian wheat and Australia is Indonesia’s largest supplier of red meat. Australian dairy products and sugar are also highly valued by our neighbour.” Some features include immediate elimination of a 5% tariff for milk and cream. This is on top of the immediate elimination of 5% tariff for grated or powdered cheese; and elimination of a 5% tariff after 15 years on Australian honey. The tariff on carrots will be immediately cut to 10% from 25% for 5000 tonnes per year, with the tariff further reduced over time, down to zero after 15 years for an unlimited volume. Mr Mahar also reflected the benefits for Australian grains, saying international competitors were increasingly challenging Australian agriculture’s market share in Indonesia, including wheat from the Black Sea and red meat from the Americas. “In many instances, IA-CEPA will strengthen Australia’s role as the preferred supplier to the burgeoning south-east Asian economy,” he said. “For example, IA-CEPA will significantly grow the quota for Australian cattle to be exported with duty free access for 575,000 head of live male cattle per year, growing at 4% per year to 700,000.” Mr Mahar said carrots were at the forefront of the agreement. “The tariff relief represents an extra $5 million to $10 million to Australia’s fresh vegetable exports per annum,” he said. Mr Mahar said it was up to the Australian Parliament to ratify the agreement and some segments of the union movement had already expressed concerns. “It is a matter of significant national importance that free trade agreements… enjoy bipartisan support and rapid passage through both houses,” he said. “In the face of drought and floods, it is vital that the future interests of farmers are not compromised by short-term partisan politics.” Waterfront workers at the DPWA terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle voted to take “rolling industrial action”, following a breakdown in negotiations on a new enterprise agreement. The Maritime Union (now part of the CFMMEU) accused the company of seeking to strip workers of income protection insurance unless they accepted the company’s demands. But in a statement, a DPWA spokesman said “we have always been clear that we will not negotiate the EA under threat of or during industrial action”. Maritime Union national secretary Paddy Crumlin said the ballot sent “an overwhelming message”. “We will not be intimidated, we will not roll over and accept your unfair agreement, and we are willing to take every step possible to fight for a fair outcome,” Mr Crumlin said. MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith said the ballot “overwhelmingly endorsed wide-ranging industrial action”. “Workers are extremely angry at DPW for the attack on income protection and are prepared to use that action to achieve some justice,” Mr Smith said. A spokesman for DPWA said their leadership was preparing for enterprise agreement negotiations on 26 March, but were cancelled “following the notice of intent to take protected industrial action.” The four enterprise agreements with the union at DPWA container terminals nominally expired on 28 February 2019 without replacement terms. In a statement to employees, new DPWA managing director and chief executive Glen Hilton talked of a difficult operating environment. “Recent decisions by shipping lines along with a weak outlook of volume growth are, and will continue to have a profound effect on the financial performance of DPWA,” Mr Hilton said. “A3 Central (COSCO, OOCL and ANL) decided to cease calling at Melbourne in August last year. “In addition the AAS consortium (Maersk and MSC) will also cease calling at Melbourne before the middle of the year. This will have a combined effect of reducing volumes by 210,000 units compared to the prior years. EAX is also considering options for future calls at our terminals from the third quarter of this year.” He said this volume loss had been compounded by weak export volumes, driven in part by ongoing drought in parts of New South Wales and Queensland. “In the face of this, DPWA chose to make a very reasonable offer to your representatives to roll over all EA’s on current terms which included a wage increase of 2.6% from 1 March,” Mr Hilton said. “This was a generous wage offer and is almost 1% higher the current CPI.” He said they also offered the continuation of income protection. “The CFMMEU’s wage claim of 5%, plus 5% plus 5% over three years as well as IP was predictably rejected by DPWA as it is completely out of touch with the financial outlook of the company and unsustainable in our competitive industry,” Mr Hilton said. Australian Peak Shippers Association secretariat Travis Brooks- Garrett said any industrial action would have an immediate impact, particularly with delays to trucks and extra costs for importers and exporters. 14 April 2019 thedcn.com.au
Largest tanker at Newcastle follows big investment Tony Corbett from Port of Newcastle, Gordon Lasker from Stolthaven and Ben Serong from Stolthaven Terminals with Pro Alliance in the background The largest fuel tanker to enter Port of Newcastle in its 220-year history arrived in mid-March. The 244metre tanker Pro Alliance berthed at Stolthaven’s Mayfield 7 bulk liquids terminal, a facility purposebuilt for such vessels. According to Port of Newcastle, receiving vessels of this size is possible only due to a four-year collaborative project between Stolthaven, Port of Newcastle, Port Authority of NSW and Svitzer to expand channel capacity and accommodate deepdraft inbound tankers of up to 245 metres load on arrival. Project partners committed to increasing the port’s capacity via several activities, including detailed channel simulation, adding active escort tug capability to the port’s fleet and the development of a dynamic under-keel clearance system for deep draft inbound ships. Port of Newcastle executive manager marine and operations Keith Wilks said the Pro Alliance’s arrival was significant, delivering supply chain flexibility and efficiencies for the oil industry. “We are proud to have facilitated the arrival of Pro Alliance at Stolthaven’s bulk liquids terminal at Port of Newcastle this morning,” Mr Wilks said. “In our 220th year of commercial shipping, milestones such as this signify the evolving role of the port in facilitating global trade through our harbour and driving growth in the regional, state and national economies.” Stolthaven managing director Gordon Lasker said the company made a significant investment in its fuel terminal facility. “The arrival of our first LR2 tanker is the realisation of a long-term investment in the dedicated bulk liquids precinct at Mayfield 7 berth,” Mr Lasker said. “We are grateful for the proactive approach by Port of Newcastle to support not only our current business but also our future expansion plans.” Stolthaven Australia has been operating a bulk liquids precinct at Newcastle since December 2013. A further 10 hectares is currently under development and is expected to deliver an expected capacity build of 450,000 cubic meters of bulk fuels and chemicals storage. Littleproud announces steering committee for biosecurity levy Port of Newcastle; Image supplied David Littleproud, Minister for Agriculture Veteran corporate leader David Trebeck has been announced as the chairman of the biosecurity levy steering committee. Mr Trebeck currently chairs Australia’s Oyster Coast Ltd and has been a non-executive director of six ASX-listed companies during the past two decades, including GrainCorp and Incitec Pivot. He also has links with shipping going back to the mid-1970s. The steering committee also includes Paul Zalai from the Freight Trade Alliance; Margie Thomson from the Cement Industry Federation; Mike Gallacher from Ports Australia; Mike Sousa from Qube Holdings; Rod Nairn AM from Shipping Australia; Brian Lovell from the Australian Federation of International Forwarders; and Tony Mahar from the National Farmers Federation. The committee is expected to design the levy and assist with its implementation. “Australia’s border biosecurity protects our food supply, 300,000 jobs, the $60 billion agriculture industry and our way of life,” Minister for agriculture, David Littleproud said. “Those creating biosecurity risk should contribute fairly to addressing that risk, remembering pests and diseases arrive on the hulls and decks of ships and not just in the imported product itself. “If the taxpayer alone bears the burden of protecting Australia then companies being bailed out by the taxpayer are unlikely to take our biosecurity seriously.” Mr Littleproud said he was also glad that his Labor counterpart Joel Fitzgibbon had supported the rationale for a biosecurity levy. thedcn.com.au April 2019 15
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Page 4 and 5: XXXXXX Contents 38 28 FEATURES 28 L
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Page 8 and 9: WORD FROM THE MINISTER Helping futu
Page 10: seafarers”. he said. las term of
Page 13: Sea Swift and Puma Energy renew the
Page 17 and 18: Terry O’Connor resigns from Darwi
Page 19 and 20: - 7 ports owned and operated - Pilo
Page 21 and 22: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY WISTA m
Page 23 and 24: ENTER ENTER AAX2! AAX2! ANL is prou
Page 25 and 26: Experience the progress. Mobile Har
Page 27 and 28: Josephine Laduzko from the Departme
Page 29 and 30: Reality bites Who’d be in liner s
Page 31 and 32: Northbound, things are looking “a
Page 33 and 34: Who helps those who are key to our
Page 35 and 36: Hyundai Supreme the AAUS service wh
Page 37 and 38: COSCO SHIPPING LINES Proud winners
Page 39 and 40: cleaner future With recent record t
Page 41 and 42: Dedicated to the extreme Smit Lamna
Page 43 and 44: Vewfinder Whilst our trucking trans
Page 46 and 47: MARITIME INSURANCE Manoon Pothanya
Page 48 and 49: MARITIME INSURANCE Shen Neng 1 The
Page 50 and 51: MARITIME INSURANCE SALMON STORIES T
Page 52 and 53: INDUSTRY OPINION Technology key to
Page 54 and 55: TRADE LAW An agenda for digital tra
Page 56 and 57: MARITIME LAW Preparing for failure
Page 58 and 59: WORKPLACE LAW Labor’s election pl
Page 60 and 61: INDUSTRY ANALYTICS Fatal heavy truc
Page 62 and 63: OUT & ABOUT Opposition leader Bill
Page 64 and 65:
MISSION TO SEAFARERS Operation Crui
Page 66 and 67:
The grill Tom Holyman, vice-preside
Page 68:
Helping economies grow and customer
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