I was asked to give evidence to the Senate Select Committee inquiry into the Tasmanian Freight Equalization Scheme which held a public hearing in Hobart on 13th November. Here’s my ‘opening statement’ to the hearing.

2024-11-13 Statement to Senate Select Committee on the TFES

 

In answers to questions about what needs to be done, I suggested that the ‘parameters’ used to determine rates of payments under the scheme, which haven’t been changed since 1999, should be reviewed much more regularly – ideally annually, based on (a) hard data on actual shipping costs across Bass Strait compared with road or rail freight rates over similar distances on the mainland; or (b) the ABS producer price indexes for road, rail and water freight transport (noting that care may need to be taken with the PPI for water freight to separate international from coastaal shipping charges); or failing that, c) the CPI.  I also suggested that there should be a separate assessment of the ‘intermodal’ costs which businesses shipping goods across Bass Strait had to bear (ie, the cost of moving goods by truck or tain from place of production to port, then placing on a ship, then again moving by truck or train from destination port to final destination) unlike those transporting goods from one place to another on the mainland. And finally I suggested there should be a review of the division of assistance into four ‘classes’, with the ‘class’ into which most recipients now fell providing a diminishing proportion of actual shipping costs.