KING Island Council, businesses and farmers have welcomed a forthcoming review of the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme.
The groups are hopeful the review will result in a reduction of all freight costs for King Island and better shipping solutions for the future.
King Island Mayor Marcus Blackie said King Island and the Furneaux islands, including Flinders Island, are totally exposed to and currently subjected to sub-optimal shipping arrangements and unsustainably high freight costs for shipping (and air freight).
“Shipped items currently covered under TFES are very limited by scope and geared towards exported finished goods,” he said.
“The ideal improvements and changes to TFES to better assist Bass Strait islands sought from a review include:
• All incoming and outgoing shipped cargo should be subjected to more equitable subsidisation under an improved TFES;
• Aviation passenger and freight movement also be included within a new TFES scope given the logistic criticality of aviation for Bass Strait Islands;
• TFES calculation formulas and subsidy amounts need to be contemporised and bespoke designed for the modern shipping services currently plying Bass Strait;
• An improved TFES should also be structured to include future triangular shipping model routes Vic-KI-Tas (or Vic-FITas); and.
• Incentives to encourage integrated solutions, optimum shipping solutions and increased economies of scale for all Tasmanian shipping requirements and not just the trunk route with TT Line.
A united effort by Mr Blackie and Flinders Island Mayor Rachel Summers at the Australian Local Government Association conference in Canberra recently resulted in the review announcement.
“We were received by Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King who is responsible for the TFES and Assistant Federal Transport Minister, Senator Carol Brown,” Mr Blackie said. .
“The TFES review team will visit King Island in early September. Because of our location and isolation, King Island is totally reliant upon aviation and shipping to underpin our entire way of life and economy.
“Aviation is our Highway 1 because it is the only transport medium to move people on and off King Island.
“We also rely disproportionately on aviation for the routine transport of mail, urgent freight and courier items, newspapers, perishable foods and the export of produce, for example, seafood.
“Shipping is our Highway 2, as the only means that the large volumes of vehicles, general cargo, freight, equipment, machinery, fuel and gas, supermarket goods, building materials, livestock (import and mostly export), dairy goods (mostly export), fertiliser, mining exports (tungsten and sand) can move on and off King Island.
“As the Victoria-King Island-Tasmanian triangular shipping service has not operated since 2018, all shipped goods to King Island currently arrive the long way through Tasmania (via Devonport and Stanley) which increases the time taken, thereby increasing shipping costs and reduces shelf-life for supermarket goods and cheese being shipped off (as examples).
“The TFES was not originally designed to deal with or subsidise the evolved shipping challenges that are now the lifeblood of our Bass Strait islands.
Therefore, over the past decade, we have become significantly disadvantaged by this now inequitable and obsolete TFES scheme.” Among others, TasFarmers has also lobbied for a TFES review.
“TasFarmers would like to see a level playing field for all producers in Tasmania when comparing costs to the mainland,” CEO Nathan Calman said.
“We would like to see certainty for island producers and want to ensure that any incremental changes to the TFES scheme in the future are not just negated by shipping rate increases.
“This will help mitigate the ‘most expensive stretch of water’, where shippers may increase prices knowing producers have received rebates.”
For current information about the TFES go to Intrastate – King Island and the Furneaux Group under the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme, which can be found on the.e Services Australia website