It’s the tax you have when you’re not having a tax
In many ways, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Container stevedoring monitoring report 2017-18 was indeed worth the wait.
It might not seem so to long-suffering container haulage firms, cargo facilitators, exporters and the general public, if it even knew, but what did the disappointed expect?
Despite politicians and ideological fanatics and the just plain greedy trying it on, seemingly relentlessly these days, no one can force a government instrumentality to do things it has no legal power to do.
If they acquiesce, the courts have a way of dealing with that in ways that tend to cut careers short.
The ACCC merely confirms what became obvious a long time before. It has no power under competition laws to tackle unilateral container stevedore access charging because such rules are irrelevant to the facts at hand.
ACCC powerless to act on container terminal access charges. Read more, here
What has become an increasingly burdensome impost on those who transport containers at port terminals, those who deal with trade and, down the track, the public, has no commercial aspect to it.
Without that, the federal body has little or no handle to get a grip on it. After all, port operations are a state matter, which is why federal infrastructure and transport minister Michael McCormack was able to appear concerned but distant from the issue.
Having kicked the can down the road earlier this year, after making a promise to look into it, and after allowing himself to look supportive in the company of state and federal industry representatives, the disappointed will hope he is working feverishly behind the scenes to convince fellow National, albeit New South Wales, and state transport minister Melinda Pavey to intervene and exercise powers she has.
That will be something of a challenge. Unlike Victoria – where, despite that government’s culpability in allowing this state of affairs to develop there, relevant minister Luke Donnellan is helping pride be swallowed for the national good – this iteration of the NSW government seems deeply averse to taking its own responsibility and doing something positive.
It probably doesn’t help that sneaky dealings over port privatisation, as it affects the owners of Newcastle’s port lease, cast its policies in such a poor light. It all looks awfully like then-premier Mike Baird’s merchant banking instincts came to the fore rather than sound governmental policy development.
Queensland? Who knows? We’ve asked several times and, so far, answers came there none.
South Australia is an outlier that needs careful attention.
Is that the end of the matter federally? It is suggested that a Productivity Commission inquiry of some kind might have a role here. Again, any adverse findings would be more along the lines of moral suasion than the power to make things happen. Is there an unfair contract terms angle? The ACCC is looking into it, but who’d want to hold their breath on that?
And so, effectively, state governments have, knowingly or not, circumvented taxation powers that might be thought a federal preserve. A tariff at two removes. That is a Treasury matter, so you’d think that federal department would be exercised about the development. The ACCC is Treasury’s, too.
Where the disappointed might find solace in the ACCC report is that it brought sharp clarity to the issue, reminding state minister that the mess is their responsibility and interested parties that their focus should mostly be towards state parliaments and ministries.
Only voters can energise state governments and their ministers, and even then…
Lest it be thought ATN has some sort of vendetta out on the stevedores, it should be remembered that their actions are but a clumsy and damaging manifestation of the privatisation mania that infected many around the start of the decade. It was as if this was going to be money for nothing and perhaps somehow the shipping lines would pick up the tab – or, it wasn’t and the state governments knew what was coming for those now paying, including the public, and didn’t care.
We tend towards the ‘stuff-up, not conspiracy’ theory of government most times. Meanwhile, given such proneness to accidents, the looming Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS) expiration should be a cause for serious concern for all of NSW. It was not without hiccups early on but seems to have brought some sanity to port haulage in its time.
But will it continue to in future?