Victoria University hopes to work with industry to leverage the educational component of the government’s proposed shipping reform
By Anna Game-Lopata |
September 30,
2011
Victoria University hopes to work with industry to leverage the educational component of the government’s proposed shipping reform.
The Gillard Labor Government announced a comprehensive package of reforms to the Australian shipping industry early in September.
The package included tax reforms to remove barriers to investment in Australian shipping and to foster the global competitiveness of the shipping industry and a simplified three tier licensing framework for participation in the coastal trade.
The reforms also comprise the establishment of an Australian International Shipping Register to put Australian companies on a level footing with their international competitors and the establishment of a Maritime Workforce Development Forum to progress key maritime skills and training priorities.
Peter Van Duyn, Victoria University’s maritime industry expert at the Institute of Supply Chain and Logistics
says the government’s proposed Maritime Workforce Development Forum will open opportunities for the educational sector in building the industry’s skill base.
“Victoria University and the Australian Maritime College hope to benefit from the education related component of the recently released reform,” he says.
“For the most part, management positions in the Australian maritime industry are held by experienced people from overseas like myself.
“There is a lack of home grown mariners with Australian qualifications.
“We hope the need for Australian vessels to comply with both safety and skills-related regulations will give institutions like Victoria University the impetus to offer relevant courses to fill positions such as harbour Masters at Port authorities or pilots,” he says.
Like many in the industry, Van Duyn believes the reform is heading in the right direction, but will depend on industry stakeholders successfully working together to nut out the details, and legislation coming through in a timely manner.
“We need to act quickly to prevent the disappearance of Australian flagged trading vessels,” he says.
“In 1996 there were 52 Australian registered vessels, now there are less than half that number. If the legislation drags on and fails to go through in the designated time frame, vessels will continue to disappear and more cargo will be carried on foreign flagged vessels.”
To put the issues on the table, the Institute for Supply Chain and Logistics will hold a one-day seminar at Melbourne’s Exhibition and Conference Centre
on October 14.
Organised by Van Duyn, the seminar will bring together key figures leading the national agenda on shipping and ports reform in Australia.
“Following the release of the Federal Government’s proposed shipping reforms, the National Port Strategy and the privatisation of Port Botany, I felt it was timely to look at the issues,” he says.
The seminar will tackle coastal shipping, industrial relations, environmental issues and privatisation of critical port infrastructure.
With a background in senior operational management with Patrick, Shell, port authorities and container terminals, along with the Port of Rotterdam in his native Holland, Van Duyn says coastal shipping in particular is close to his heart.
“I think Australia should be a shipping nation, so it’s positive the government is slowly working through these issues culminating in the recent shipping reform announcement,” he says.
Van Duyn says overseas experience shows concepts such as the proposal for a second register
have worked in Holland and the UK, and will make it easier for vessels to register as Australian by allowing just the master and chief officer to be Australian citizens.
“The Maritime Workforce Development forum will also be a big ticket item but it will require the unions to recognise the need for realistic expectations on sustainable wages, for example when it comes to the difference between offshore vessels servicing resources projects and other coastal vessels,” he says.
Van Duyn argues to make the shipping industry viable a number of key issues need to come together, including minimisation of increases in supply chain costs, provision of
incentives to replace Australian trading vessels at the end of their life,and general agreement between all stakeholders on workforce skills, conditions and wages.
In addition, Van Duyn says although the decision to privatise Port Botany is made, the industry should nevertheless consider its implications, especially in relation to possible competition between the privatised Port Botany and those still in government hands including Port Jackson, Port Kembla and the Port of Newcastle.
Seminar speakers include representatives from the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport, the Australian Shipowners Association, the Maritime Union of Australia, Carnival and Asciano.
Special guest Professor Alf Baird, Head of the Edinburgh University’s Maritime Research Group will present findings on the privatisation of ports overseas.
More
information and to register
or contact Peter Van Duyn 03 99196264