DCN October Edition 2019

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FREIGHT BLUEPRINT FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA RELEASED
The South Australian Freight Council’s CEO Evan Knapp spoke with DCN
about the release of its report Moving Freight 2019
In relation to the Moving Freight
report what response have you
received, if any, from government
and stakeholders?
Responses to Moving Freight have been
overwhelmingly supportive so far –
particularly from other associations that
represent key freight customer groups
and individual transport modes.
An online poll run by the local
Murdoch press found 75% public
support for our ‘South East Link’ concept,
with almost 900 responses. That was
particularly gratifying, as it’s not always
easy to develop public support for
freight related initiatives. The local
Commonwealth MP didn’t like the
concept – but rejecting it won’t change
the fact that a rise in road freight is
unavoidably coming to her electorate
when other infrastructure is completed.
We are not expecting any official
government response prior to the
release of the 20 year State Infrastructure
Strategy, but individual discussions have
been positive.
Did the Freight Council anticipate
any significant modal shift away
from road or increase in freight being
carried by sea in its analysis for this
report?
Adelaide has some of the best, if not the
best, road freight links to its container
port of all mainland capital cities (noting
that some work on the final links is
required). Road train movements
account for around a third of all container
movements to FACT (the Flinders
Adelaide Container Terminal).
Coupled with the inbuilt difficulties
that short haul rail has to overcome,
it’s difficult to see the road dominance
being overcome without government
intervention to force modal shift.
While we’ve previously called for
a loosening of the current cabotage
rules to promote better use of the ‘blue
highway’ in Australia, the simple fact
is that there has been little positive
movement in this area despite it being on
the agenda for at least a decade.
Naturally there is an expected total
growth of both bulk and non-bulk export
sea freight over time. This could be
significant if a number of mining ventures
are developed – particularly the Braemar
province – but there are infrastructure
challenges to be overcome first.
What do you think are the most
critical port/shipping related findings
of the report?
Critical freight transport infrastructure –
including ports and port freight links – need
to be better protected from encroachment
by non-compatible uses. The economic
costs of allowing ports to be constrained
are both massive and (at least in South
Australia’s case) avoidable. In essence,
state planning systems need to embrace
a ‘principle of prior use’, protecting
freight infrastructure and banning noncompatible
developments.
It’s pleasing to see that the National
Freight and Supply Chain Strategy has
embraced this principle at SAFC’s urging,
but we will need to see principle turned
into action quickly to avoid some of the
issues already being felt at certain east
coast ports.
South Australia has also seen a deluge
of regional port proposals in recent
years – far more than are actually needed
or that we have the freight to support.
While the need for new regional freight
ports is real, the number of proposals is
changing risk dynamics and paralysing
development.
In relation to the Eyre Peninsula,
did the Freight Council see merit in
coming up with a means by which
grain could still be transported by rail
rather than moving this to road?
SAFC argued long and hard for
government intervention to keep the
Eyre Peninsula rail lines open, including
taking the issue directly to ministers,
but were ultimately unsuccessful. Early
draft versions of Moving Freight had
support for the EP rail lines in our top
three ‘urgent’ projects.
This changed to calling for urgent
EP road safety upgrades once the
decision to cease grain transport was
made and bedded in. We are concerned
that roads and communities on the
EP are not prepared for the significant
additional truck numbers that the rail
closure will create.
What’s next for the SA Freight
Council in relation to this report and
attempting to get action on at least
the most urgent projects?
Our first priority will be to see the
infrastructure priorities outlined in
Moving Freight embedded into the
20 Year State Infrastructure Strategy.
Looking at the other submissions to the
strategy and the high level of support
for many of the initiatives we have put
forward by other influential groups, we
have a high level of confidence that this
will be achieved.
Then the long process of encouraging
Infrastructure Australia submissions by
government and gaining Commonwealth
and State budget support begins.
We are ready for this challenge.
Evan Knapp, CEO,
SA Freight Council
SA Freight Council
42 October 2019
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