Time for an integrated approach to ports

The response came as the Australian Transport Council  reviewed the National Transport Commission (NTC), as required under the terms of the NTC's establishment in 2003.

Mr Tripodi told a Shipping Australia lunch this week that the NSW Government would recommend to the review that port issues be elevated as a national priority.

"Australia’s ports are essential to its economic welfare, with 90% of our trade going through our ports," Mr Tripodi said.

"They are dependent nodes in critical export and import supply chains.”

Mr Tripodi called for greater consistency in national port regulation and reform, referring specifically to issues of port policy, duplication of government resources and port ownership.

He touched on the need to discuss Australia's stevedoring duopoly and finding strategies to promote third parties.

Shipping Australia welcomed the comments, arguing that national standards for port use and operation had international benefits for shipping lines that call in most states.

Ports Australia executive officer Susan Fryda-Blackwell said it was crucial that efforts to develop an integrated approach to port and maritime planning were well-advanced for the time when trade volumes returned.

“These are first tier issues for the ports community in facilitating their efficient operation – maximising their capacity and their ability to bring on stream new capacity in a timely manner – and we are encouraged that the NSW Government is demonstrating some considerable resolve to address them,” Ms Fryda-Blackwell said.

Meanwhile, Newcastle Port Corporation has been given full development control over the former BHP Steelworks site at Mayfield.

The move was part of a wider push to give ports control over more of the land associated with the port to avoid multiple juristinctions and, as a result, speed up development.