Thursday, 7 April 2022

Bills

Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ms HORNE:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (15:00): It is a pleasure to rise and talk on the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022, which relates to port matters and other reforms. I will start off by saying that speakers before me on this bill have been over the main provisions of this legislation, and I would like to focus on a few specific areas. I note the member for South Barwon, when he spoke, related to the port of Geelong, and I would like to talk about the ports that fall under the jurisdiction of Gippsland Ports.

The first area I would like to have a discussion on is around clauses 62 to 64, which state that with the approval of the minister a local port manager may apply its resources and services outside its declared port areas on a commercial basis or provide assistance to other local port managers. Now, that is of great significance to Gippsland Ports because they have a dredge that dredges the lake’s entrance, called the Tommy Norton. It is a hopper dredge that was introduced with significant investment over the past two governments, which has come to fruition. But at the moment that dredge can only operate at the entrance of the Gippsland Lakes and within that port area, and there is certainly a need around other areas of the state for that dredge to be utilised. That is beneficial because ports struggle in a number of areas to be appropriately supported by government funding, and if they can use their dredge to generate income from other areas of the state and potentially other departments, and potentially other jurisdictions also, that will assist Gippsland Ports with their bottom line. I am assuming that these clauses in the bill are primarily to address that issue; there may also be some other reasons. What we want to be able to see is, because it is a Gippsland Ports owned vessel, the financial benefits of doing that work outside the port actually coming back to Gippsland Ports.

One of the reasons that is important is ports have very important safety requirements to meet. Now, if you consider the expanse of the Gippsland Lakes, the expanse of Corner Inlet, the expanse of Mallacoota Inlet and those areas, there are important navigation marks that highlight a whole range of dangers for visiting boaters, and local boaters for that matter—navigation marks that keep people out of trouble. At the moment the only provision that you have to maintain those crucial safety navigation marks to the right level is for the ports authorities to put in a grant application and hope like hell that that grant application is approved to be able to do that important safety work. If you put in a grant application to upgrade the navigation aids to the level that is required and you are unsuccessful in that grant, you really need to subscribe to whatever religion you adhere to and pray that there will not be an accident in the meantime until the other grant stream comes around. So if Gippsland Ports can derive income out of the use of the Tommy Norton—named after the original tugboat at the entrance of the Gippsland Lakes, which unfortunately sank in 1877, so this is really the Tommy Norton II—to maintain and upgrade those important navigation aids, that would be particularly important.

Part 3 of this bill makes amendments to the Port Management Act 1995 to provide for the establishment of new towage and pilotage licensing schemes. Now, one of the provisions is that it provides power to ports to specify licence conditions that apply to licence-holders, but it sets the limit at five years for these pilot licences. It is not clear within that five-year window what the period is for renewal; that is not mentioned in the bill. For example, at what point in that five-year time frame can a pilot licence holder then apply for the next five-year length of tenure for security of their operations? Five years does not appear to be a particularly long time for a commercial right for such an important service.

I am sure that those pilot operators would want to see a bit more length in the tenure of security for their business purposes. Having a short length of tenure of five years can also put inflationary factors into the cost of providing those services, because they have got to get a return within a much shorter period of time. So they would be seeking a bit more security, and you can anticipate that lenders who are backing these entities would like a longer tenure than five years for a bit more security. One of the outcomes that we will face from that, as I said, is potentially rising costs, and then that flows right back through the system of managing freight by sea, so that is a factor that we would like to have a look at.

Part 3, division 2 of the bill inserts a new part 4B into the Port Management Act to provide for the licensing of pilotage service providers to Victoria. Now, this is a welcome change, because we have, for instance, Corner Inlet as a port that could well be developed in the coming years. At Corner Inlet down there in South Gippsland we have got a number of projects going on offshore. The Star of the South wind farm is one; there are others that are, I guess, being considered and discussed at the moment that may come to development. That would then require potentially pilotage services to be brought into Corner Inlet. What we have at the current time is a pilotage service that is structured, I believe, around Port Phillip and Western Port predominately. There are none in Corner Inlet operating at the moment because there is no need, but this will potentially open up that new port market to new operators and maybe to local operators that would benefit and support the South Gippsland economy coming into play. So while they may look at expanding, this opens the way for these new entities to come into the marketplace.

I want to make a few comments before I finish in relation to harbourmasters and the governance changes around that. The review of ports governance recommended that some targeted reforms around operational performance of the state’s harbourmasters be implemented to be consistent across the Victorian port structure. But what we need to ensure is that while we are applying consistent standards the length and breadth of the state there is a recognition that our ports authorities are very different structures. For instance, Gippsland Ports is very different to Melbourne ports. The government has already made mistakes in other areas, of having one-rule-fits-all across the board, and we do not want to see that happen here. For instance, Gippsland Ports is the only port manager that is required to engage and have a harbourmaster. Can they be guaranteed that there will be no unintended costs put on Gippsland Ports as a result of this change to have a statewide uniform set of plans? Will there be criteria put on that harbourmaster so that the conditions of employment will be made extraordinarily difficult and they will have trouble filling that position? These are the things that, when a bill like this is laid out on the ground, I would hope strong consideration have been given to, because there is nothing in the second-reading speech or the explanations or the commentary that has come from the other side to date to explain these matters. I understand a lot of the members who spoke on this do not have a port in their area so they would not be familiar with these issues. But these are the questions that we need answered.

Whatever requirements are imposed on harbourmasters, you must look at the character of the individual ports and the requirements of those individual ports. As I said, and I will say it again, the port of Geelong and the port of Melbourne are very, very different to Gippsland Ports—a very, very different structure. So while we are not opposing this bill, there are several areas where we do require further detail. Hopefully we can get that further detail as this bill progresses between the houses. These are some of the areas that we will be considering between chambers as to whether they need to be tweaked, but they are matters that I would hope that maybe even the government speakers who are yet to speak on this bill might be able to address and might be able to provide some more detail on, some of these issues. But if not, I would hope that they will be addressed when this bill enters the other place.

Mr McGHIE (Melton) (15:10): I rise today to contribute to the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. Melbourne ports are an important part of our economy, but they are also an important part of our cultural heritage. As a western suburbs lad, the ports hold an influence on many of the traditional working-class suburbs, such as Braybrook, where I was born and bred; Sunshine; Footscray, where I grew up; Yarraville; Williamstown; and Newport. They all have workers, pubs and businesses linked to the ports. Of course, the Labor Party itself and the union movement have been impacted by the ports and their workers. This cultural heritage of Melbourne has had its fair share of influence down at the docks, and I will go to an event later on through my contribution. But I would like to take this time to acknowledge the great contribution of the member for Footscray and her reflection on the history of the ports and the relationship between the ports, the western suburbs and the western suburbs families and how it was so important for those families, particularly with jobs and productivity throughout the western suburbs.

This port reforms and other matters bill seeks to amend the legislation, and I will go to those points that it seeks to amend. It embeds the establishment of Ports Victoria in legislation and provides for the abolition of the Victorian Ports Corporation (Melbourne) and the Victorian Regional Channels Authority. It also adapts the charter of Ports Victoria to implement specific recommendations made as an outcome of the independent review of the Victorian ports system. It implements review recommendations in relation to local ports, port development strategies and regulatory arrangements relating to harbourmasters, towage and pilotage. It also changes the Port of Hastings Development Authority’s name to reflect its current role and likely future function in the Victorian ports system. It avoids any doubt that it is up to the government to determine when the Victorian Rail Access Regime commences. It also puts beyond doubt that the powers and functions of the minister under the Fisheries Act 1995 can be delegated to the chief executive officer of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, and it makes improvements to transport restructuring order provisions and other matters in the Transport Integration Act 2010. The final point is that it makes clear that it is not necessary to prescribe a fee to be paid by applicants for registration in the tourist and heritage railway group register.

I alluded to it earlier, but I want to just make reference to an incident that I think is obviously a very historic incident in regard to the ports and my relationship with the ports, as someone that grew up in the western suburbs near the ports but also through my role when I went to the ambulance union and also as an ambulance paramedic. I was the assistant secretary back in 1998 of the ambulance union. People may remember this event, but tomorrow is a really auspicious day. It happens to be the 24th anniversary of the Patrick–Maritime Union of Australia dispute. I do not know if anyone remembers that dispute, but I was heavily involved in it, all the unions were involved in it, a lot of western suburbs communities and communities from around Melbourne were involved in it and it was a historic occasion down at the ports. I have to congratulate the MUA for their stand in that event and the whole trade union movement for their stand. You may remember what happened. Those workers were sacked on 8 April 1998, and Patrick tried to bus in I will call them goons in hoods with dogs to protect them. Of course, there was a picket line across the wharf’s front. There was a community set up down there, and I know anyone that had been involved in the trade union movement was around at the time. Everyone participated in that action. I will never forget the Friday night when it looked like the police were going to break up the picket line. We were there all night, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trade unionists, community members and family members linking arms. The police helicopter was flying over the top. Then early on the Saturday morning the police came in in droves, hundreds of them, to start the separation of that group of people that were picketing. We had politicians at the front of the line—I do remember I think Joan Kirner was one of them, it could have even been Steve Bracks at the time, and many, many other state politicians—linking arms on the front line, being faced down by police 1 metre away. It looked like it was going to be very volatile.

But what happened was that we had the construction workers come in from the building sites at 7 o’clock in the morning, and they stood on the other side of the police. Common sense prevailed, and it was like the parting of the sea. The construction workers separated and allowed this avenue for the police to move away. The police moved away. I have got to say that that dispute was resolved nine days later on 17 April 1998, and it was only because of those port workers. I congratulate them, I congratulate the union and I congratulate everyone that supported them. How important it was not only to them but to all of their families right throughout Melbourne. But more so, a lot of those port workers were from working-class areas in the western suburbs, and I knew a lot of them that worked down at the ports. They had a great celebration down at Williamstown only a couple of weeks later, where they had a big I suppose I would call it a festival. It was a celebratory festival, and it was fantastic.

There are two other incidents that I would like to refer to. As a paramedic I attended the Coode Island fire when that went up at the ports. We were on standby just in case there were people that were injured, and fortunately there were not. But we were on standby at the Footscray Football Club in the social club rooms, as I say, waiting just in case people were injured.

There is a third event that I will refer to. I do not know if people remember it, but this is how I remember the ports at the time—and this goes back many, many years when my father was employed at General Motors-Holden down at Fishermans Bend. There used to be a little passenger ferry that would go across the river from Francis Street, Yarraville, to Fishermans Bend to transport the workers to all of those factories on that side of the river. I remember that well, because I used to drop my father off, in his car because I did not have a car, and he would go to work by ferry. They are just some events in my history that I relate to the ports.

There was an independent review of the Victorian ports system which was conducted in 2020. This was the first holistic review into the ports system in 20 years. During the intervening period the system has gone through significant changes, including the introduction of the third stevedore in 2015 and leasing of the port of Melbourne in 2016. Of course the leasing of the port of Melbourne provided financial reward for the state, and I think what we have done is had many, many infrastructure builds, such as level crossing removals, out of that lease arrangement. The review process included extensive consultation across the industry and stakeholders. I know that it has been questioned by the opposition about lack of consultation, but there have been many stages of consultation that have occurred over a number of years, including commercial port and local port operators. So I rebut what the opposition say about a lack of consultation.

The review of the Victorian ports system made 63 recommendations, all of which are supported by the Victorian government, together with long-term reforms that reinforce open market access to ensure the sustainable economic future of Victoria’s ports. The full government response to that review addresses these recommendations while setting out the three main areas of action. Those areas are: establishing Ports Victoria, including creating Ports Victoria’s legislative charter, and outlining key reforms, including the pilotage and towage services; developing the Victorian commercial ports strategy, which will further define the government’s stewardship role and articulate the key steps in ensuring the future of Victoria’s ports; and of course local ports and waterway management reforms that will seek to effectively support the economic and social value of these assets.

It is expected that over a specified period of, say, 12 to 24 months Ports Victoria will undertake an audit of the competencies and systems of the pilotage service providers to operate safely. This will be integrated with the development and implementation of new harbourmaster systems, practices and of course processes that are aimed at addressing identified gaps in operational coordination and control. Ports Victoria will keep a register of licensed pilotage service providers and the waters for which they are licensed, and providers of pilotage services who are registered under the Marine Safety Act 2010 at the time the provisions commence are deemed to be licensed.

This bill is an important bill. It is important for the state, but it is also important for workers and families and many, many suburbs that are supported by employment through the port system. This bill seeks to implement important changes that are needed, and I wish to thank the Minister for Ports and Freight, who, as the member for Williamstown, knows of this portfolio’s importance not just for Victoria but for her electorate of Williamstown. I support these amendments, and I commend this bill to the house.

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (15:19): I wish to contribute this afternoon to the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022 because the people of western Victoria and the grand seat of Polwarth understand more than many other people in other electorates across the state of Victoria the importance of well-run and efficient ports. The reason, quite simply, is the overwhelming majority of production in an area like Polwarth, whether it is in forestry, whether it is in grains or whether it is in the dairy industry—

Mr R Smith: Ice cream.

Mr RIORDAN: Most famously our ice cream—60 per cent of Australia’s ice cream comes from our part of the world. It is an important local product, but it is also very important that it gets on board and is exported from the state.

We excel in seafood exports, woodchip timber product and all sorts of goods and services, so much so that it is well over the majority of the production and employment of our communities. Not only that, it supports the very large and vital transport industry. The transport industry—trucking companies, freight companies, logistics companies, people moving the goods and services in and out of western Victoria—equates to about 30 per cent of the local economy in some areas. It is a vital conduit. Our farmers, our producers and exporters, our manufacturers and our transport industry all have relationships one way or another with our ports and our port infrastructure. That is a huge amount of product and a huge amount of people having relationships on a daily basis with the port of Portland, the port of Geelong and the Melbourne port—they are the main ones they deal with. But specifically in Polwarth of course we have smaller harbours. We have got the Apollo Bay harbour and the Port Campbell harbour, and I guess I draw on the experience of those smaller ports and reference their great importance to those local communities.

For example, the little port of Port Campbell, which is one of the few functioning access points for everyone in that marine environment to get access to what is at times a very busy waterway. With the big ships out at sea from there and tourists and visitors alike closer to shore we rely on an access point at a place like Port Campbell. That is overseen by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. Everyone in country Victoria’s favourite government department is DELWP. DELWP have been sitting on this harbour. They have not trained anyone to use the crane, for example, for nearly two years. The community down there are still very desperate to have access to training so that boats can safely be put into the harbour there.

In this Parliament and the state of Victoria everybody is well aware of the terrible tragedy there about three Easters ago when a father-and-son rescue team launched from the port of Port Campbell and tragically were killed in service to the Victorian community. We understand how important that little harbour is, the service it provides and the toll that it has taken on that local community. And yet this government has not found it within itself to support that community and to maintain a regular training session at the harbour, so much so that there is now only a handful of people left who can access the crane on that harbour that puts important fishing boats in and makes it accessible for safety, for lifesavers and others to get out to sea to keep people safe and to operate. That is a real concern. That is one example of where when government does not get its management of harbours right, the community pays a toll.

I guess the other example is the harbour in Apollo Bay. The harbour in Apollo Bay is a bit like the Twelve Apostles: it is regularly photographed and shown as a beautiful and iconic space along the Great Ocean Road. Yet 80 per cent of that harbour is unusable because the government continues to underfund the necessary dredging equipment that is required in a small harbour like that. That harbour is very important because not only does it have the potential to have a large and valuable export fishing fleet but it also provides safe harbour for many passing boats. Those that have been on the Melbourne to Tasmania boat races, the Sydney to Hobart boat races and others have often found safe harbour when blown off course or caught in storms, as have many others that travel around it. It is an important spot because between Port Phillip Bay and Portland, which is a very big stretch of coastline, there is not much else to keep people safe. It is important that the investment is put into our smaller harbours and our focus is on their potential to communities and their overall value to the broader community.

When we move around the coast and into Port Phillip Bay of course we have got the Geelong port, Geelong harbour, which has seen a real renaissance in recent years in its value to the local community. For many, 10 or 15 years ago there were real concerns about the viability of Geelong. There were big manufacturers and people based on the harbour that were icons for many years—International Harvester, the Ford Motor Company and others—but in recent years that whole space has been completely revitalised by a well-run port. A well-run port there has seen significant investment in what is now one of Australia’s only fuel-refining spots, at the Viva refinery in Geelong, and it is providing a new opportunity for Victoria to have extra gas security, with a natural gas port there. But diesel and the fuel importing there provides great energy security to western Victoria and to the many agricultural and manufacturing industries that I mentioned earlier.

We have also seen, when a well-run port has some innovation, new things like the Tasmanian ferry terminal being constructed—and I might add, with very, very little to no support from this government at all and that is a great initiative from a well-run port operating with success despite interference and lack of interest from this government. It is a very good example of where this government is so lousy at times it is not even prepared to help invest in a set of traffic lights so that all the visitors coming to Victoria can safely enter and exit the port facility, and that is something where you sit back and scratch your head.

Mr Eren interjected.

Mr RIORDAN: Here is a great investment that is really going to be great for the Geelong community, and I notice the retiring member for Lara does not seem to want to support very much that port facility. I do not think they have been able to get a local member or a minister down there to show that support. They have forgotten that Geelong has a port. They got all their money out of the Melbourne port and then took it off to buy some tunnels and build some tunnels in Melbourne, and they have not reinvested it back into the important port services that Port Phillip Bay can have and certainly so many parts of regional Victoria rely on.

It is all very well, I guess, for a government to focus on the administrative side of ports, and this legislation attempts to make some improvements there. But when you take a step back and look at what the industries and the communities that use ports want, what do they want? They want ongoing maintenance, and we have seen that in a place like Apollo Bay. They want ongoing support, and we have seen that in a place like Port Campbell. In places like Geelong the biggest complaint coming through is that there is still no commitment from this government about creating proper road and rail networks into that port to ensure that the millions and hundreds of millions, into billions, of dollars worth of product that is going in and out of a port like Geelong can continue to do so into the future, unobstructed, and quickly and efficiently, because if we do not do that of course we end up with transport companies having to do what they are doing now, which is sending their trucks towards Geelong and them having to essentially camp overnight out at a place like Bannockburn, which is in the electorate of Polwarth. The people in Bannockburn tell me it is not uncommon to see many, many trucks, all lined up, drivers sleeping in their cabins overnight, all the way out at Bannockburn, because there is nowhere to do that close to the Geelong port. Then they get up, and when the port opens in the morning they can continue on through.

It is simple things like that—simple infrastructure, simple support. A government that really cares about the value of export and ports to a state would be working probably more proactively with, instead of sort of turning its back on, Geelong. They have had plenty of opportunities to really supercharge the Geelong port, but it has happened anyway because it is well located, and western Victoria is doing such a great job of providing throughput, product and services into that port that it has grown without the support, very much at times, from this current state government. So with this bill there will be obviously a need to scrutinise it further in the upper house. It is sort of a half attempt by this government to make our ports better. But I think, as I have said often in this chamber, it is not what they say they are going to do, it is what they actually do, and the evidence of what they are actually doing in our ports leaves a lot to be desired.

Mr EREN (Lara) (15:29): Yet another poor performance by the member for the Polwarth, as usual. I know he has not been around for long enough, but he has got to learn how to speak in this chamber and present the truth.

Anyway, apart from that, I have got to say this: I am really delighted to speak on this very important bill before the house, the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I know the member for Geelong is very keen on making sure that we have employment at its maximum in Geelong. I think the member for Polwarth was not around when they were last in government, when the unemployment rate was reaching about 7.5 to 8 per cent in Geelong. Now, as we stand, it is just between a 3 and 3.5 per cent unemployment rate. We are very proud of the work that we have been doing around employment opportunities in Geelong. We moved the TAC to Geelong. We have moved WorkSafe Victoria to Geelong. When it comes to the ports we value the opportunities that exist in relation to them. Now the ports body has moved to Geelong and is called Ports Victoria.

Yet again this government is making sure that we have sustainable job opportunities going forward and also in terms of the population growth that is going on. As you may know, there is a reason why Geelong is a great place to live, work and raise a family. It is because the Andrews Labor government is looking after it. That is why it has the fastest growing population at the moment in the whole nation—the fastest growing population anywhere in regional Australia. Of course we have got to make sure that we look after these assets. I am proud to say, even though they are physically in my electorate, we collectively benefit from the economic activities that these assets bring to Geelong widely. So when you consider Avalon Airport, for example, the main highway, good rail links and a great port, all of these things mean that we can sustain the population growth and provide jobs for those people that move to our regions. Like I said, it is the economic heart in terms of economic activity.

The port of Geelong I think is very important in the sense that it has been around for about 150 years. Initially it was used to export wool, as we know. The Western District is a farming district that continues to produce good amounts of dairy produce, and good amounts of wool are still being exported. About 25 per cent of all of Victoria’s overseas exports are currently being handled at the Geelong port. That is massive, and indirectly there are about 3500 jobs associated with the activity of the port. We estimate that that will grow, and that is why it is important to make sure that assets like the Geelong port and other ports around the state be as efficient as possible to accommodate this huge influx of demand, not only for our produce but also in relation to the demand for what we import for sustainability in our own lives.

With that being said, obviously it is important to make sure that assets like that are catered for through the bill that is before this house, and this is exactly what this bill is about. It is about making sure that we have the reforms in place. I would like to run through some of the important changes that will be occurring. The bill defines in very broad terms the Victorian ports system and links this to Ports Victoria’s objectives, which are to obviously promote and facilitate trade, support strategic planning and development, participate in emergency management at a state level, undertake operational activities and provide technical and consultancy services in relation to the whole of the Victorian ports system, not just the commercial trading ports. The bill will also improve the Victorian ports system by continuing the operations of Ports Victoria, adapting its charter and making related amendments in relation to local ports, port development strategies and regulatory arrangements relating to harbourmasters, towage and pilotage; and changing the Port of Hastings Development Authority’s name and objects to reflect its current role and likely future function in the Victorian ports system.

There are a whole raft of things that are in this very important bill, which has been well thought out and has been widely canvassed. It has been an intensely consultative process in terms of how we should—because it is such an important bill—proceed forward to make sure that our ports are as efficient as possible. From that perspective I want to congratulate the minister responsible for this bill before the house, the Minister for Ports and Freight, and of course for all of the other behind-the-scenes work that goes on by departments and other bureaucrats. They are the real workers behind the scenes making these bills work for Victorians. It is a great opportunity for us, from government’s point of view, again to be concentrating on such important assets as ports around the state. Importantly I think it makes sense for Ports Victoria to be located in regional Victoria, because there is obviously a lot of activity that goes on in regional Victoria in terms of ports as well.

Given the importance of our port system, an independent review of the Victorian port system was conducted in 2019–20. This bill makes the legislative amendments needed to implement the commitments the government made in response. A key recommendation of the review was a merger of the Victorian Ports Corporation (Melbourne) and the Victorian Regional Channels Authority. Geelong is the base for this new entity, this newly established statewide ports body, Ports Victoria. Ports Victoria will lead the strategic management and operation of Victorian commercial ports and waterways. The new organisation began operating out of Geelong on 1 July 2021, recognising the city’s important role in Victoria’s port system—obviously through the port of Geelong and the future relocation of the Spirit of Tasmania.

We are very excited about that. We are very excited about that ferry service that will transport not only people from Tasmania to come aboard and come and watch the Cats play if they are Cats supporters. I know Will Hodgman, the previous Premier, was a huge Cats fan. We used to go to a number of games together with Will Hodgman. He is now the Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, but I am sure he will still come down and support the Cats. There will be thousands of people, literally, for the nine games, for example, at Geelong that will take advantage of the ferry service and go to not only spend the night hopefully in Geelong but spend their money in our hospitality industry. So we know the value this service will provide, and we as a state government obviously have been engaged. I speak to Brett Winter often, as we all do collectively with other MPs in relation to their requirements and their needs. When you consider that it is such an important asset, it is obviously worth talking to the ports regularly to understand their needs going forward.

I do not want to go back to the member for Polwarth, but I think—

A member: You’re going to, though, aren’t you?

Mr EREN: I will.

A member: He is wrong.

Mr EREN: Not only is he wrong, he has got his wires mixed up, because as I have indicated before, if we were not doing what we are doing as a government to improve employment opportunities, the unemployment rate would not be just over 3 per cent; it would be 8 per cent, like it was when they were government. But he was not around, so anyway he will learn. As time goes on he will learn how to speak in this chamber and be accurate in what he says. The initial government response to the review included approval of the proposed merger and the transport restructuring. The Transport Integration Act 2010 was used to establish Ports Victoria as a new sector transport agency.

In the short time that I have available, there is something else going on that is affecting our region, and that will be hopefully the Bay West proposal—the super port. It has been indicated that it will be an ideal location in the west. Having a super port like Bay West will bring literally tens of thousands of jobs to our region. So again I go back to where I started. I congratulate the minister on this bill. I am glad that the ports are moving to Geelong. I wish it a speedy passage and thank the minister for her hard work.

Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:39): I am happy to rise to say a few words on the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022, which is relevant to all of us with ports and harbours in our electorates, including the magnificent electorate of Gippsland South, which does not have huge commercial ports, but we have actually got quite a few ports here, and I will come to those a little bit later. This legislation is largely the formal process of setting up Ports Victoria, as has been indicated by previous speakers, and has a number of other reform arrangements to ports, including changes to pilotage and setting up a licensing scheme for pilotage services, among other things. I note that one of objects of Ports Victoria is to promote and facilitate trade through commercial trading ports and local ports. That is a noble aim, and I hope it will be achieved by the new organisation. But I also note that we have seen a significant escalation in prices at the port of Melbourne since the time of the lease initiated by this government, and that flows through to business and flows through to households through the extra costs that are borne by them and indeed makes our port less attractive for business. We have long been the busiest port in Australia, and under this government the activity that they have undertaken puts that at risk. I would be hopeful that the changes in this bill might address some of those issues.

I just want to reflect on that issue of the privatisation of the port. It does bug me in this chamber very regularly when the government seems to be a bit schizophrenic on the issue of privatisation. We just saw it in question time, where the Minister for Health had a go at members of the opposition with respect to privatisation of hospitals in the Kennett government. There is an inconsistency there and hypocrisy in that the government is quite happy to privatise other services—land titles, the licensing division of VicRoads, the port of Melbourne. I do not really understand why one thing privatised is bad, but another thing is good. It seems to be one thing privatised by Liberals and Nationals is bad and something privatised by Labor is fine. So there is a hypocrisy there in the government on the issue of privatisation, and the port of Melbourne is a classic example of one that the government did.

As I said, the electorate of Gippsland South has some magnificent ports. We have got certainly the second-oldest port in the state, Port Albert, which was the way Gippsland was settled. It is largely just a small fishing port and a tourist area at the moment and certainly a very popular location for recreational fishermen to depart from as well. Port Welshpool is still quite an active port commercially, both for fishermen but also for Bass Strait trade, including from some of the Bass Strait islands. Quite a bit of activity goes through there, including live cattle coming in from the Bass Strait islands to markets in Victoria. We have got Port Franklin, which is probably one of the prettiest ports, certainly in my electorate—a lovely little port based on the Franklin River as it comes out into Corner Inlet, surrounded by what I believe is the Southern Hemisphere’s southernmost mangrove forest. And there are still quite a number of commercial fishermen that operate out of Port Franklin as well. Then we have got Barry Beach and Port Anthony, which are very serious commercial ports. Barry Beach for over 50 years has been the service point for the Bass Strait oil and gas rigs, now owned and managed by Qube. Port Anthony right next door—effectively the same infrastructure but slightly different ownership; Port Anthony owned by the Anthony family—is being developed and trying to work up a number of other commercial opportunities that can operate through South Gippsland, including most recently the announcement of a heads of agreement on new hydrogen production nearby, which would be a great thing to occur if it were to get off the ground.

We have also got plenty of other water-based areas. You will be surprised to know, I am sure, that there is in fact a port of Sale. The port of Sale was historically a very active port, providing access through the Gippsland Lakes and out through Lakes Entrance to Sale. It is a long time since that has been active, but it is now a great recreational area and one that is being redeveloped by Wellington shire with support from the federal government. And there are various other locations. Loch Sport you would not call a port, but it is an area of significant importance for the western part of the Gippsland Lakes. Indeed tomorrow I will be in Loch Sport catching up with some of the business and tourism association people there about their proposal for a safe harbour at that end of the Gippsland Lakes in Loch Sport. This is something they have been working on for some time in conjunction with councils, with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and with Gippsland Ports, and I would hope that this can be developed further into a proposal that can achieve a positive business case and then subsequently receive funding from both the state and federal governments if necessary. I think that would be a great boon for Loch Sport and indeed, as I said, for the western part of the Gippsland Lakes, where there is not much in the way of safe harbour.

There is an issue, and I hope that Ports Victoria will be able to deal with this to some degree, although it will not directly affect the Gippsland area. One of the challenges we have with water access, including to ports and to smaller recreational ports, is the number of different organisations that are in charge. I had a period a couple of years ago when I was dealing with issues of access at boat ramps on channels, and on a number of different ones—so Lake Wellington at Marlay Point; Sandy Point down on Waratah Bay; and I had some issues in Corner Inlet as well. They all had so many different agencies involved that it made it extremely confusing. We had literally DELWP, we had shires—South Gippsland and Wellington shires in my case—we had Parks Victoria, we had Gippsland Ports and we had foreshore committees of management, which actually are responsible in some areas as well. It would be good to clean some of that up.

Indeed the irony of the Marlay Point situation was that not only were Gippsland Ports, DELWP and the shire all separately involved, but Marlay Point itself, the boundary between Gippsland South and Gippsland East electorates, actually runs around the shore of Lake Wellington. So with the Marlay Point issue it was not even clear which local member should be chasing it up, because technically, I think, if I have got this right, the water would be mine but the land would be the member for Gippsland East’s. So there are anomalies like this that cause confusion and difficulty and ultimately often lead to inaction, and one of the jobs that we have had to do in Gippsland is to sort out who is responsible for these issues.

I just want to touch on Corner Inlet. As I said, it is the main commercial port in my electorate, with Barry Beach and Port Welshpool, and there are some great opportunities. I go back to the object of Ports Victoria: promoting and facilitating trade through commercial trading ports and local ports. There are some good opportunities there with the proposed offshore wind farms, and we are all excitedly awaiting the finalisation of plans for the Star of the South offshore wind farm in particular, which is more so off McLoughlin’s Beach and Port Albert. It will need to have obviously a construction base and then an ongoing maintenance base, and the hope I have is that they will choose Barry Beach in Corner Inlet as the maintenance base there. It will be certainly easier. It is on the right side of Wilsons Promontory. The alternatives would probably be potentially Lakes Entrance but more likely the port of Hastings, which is a lot further away, having to go around the prom. So while there might be some issues that we might have to deal with, with potential dredging of the channel to make Barry Beach a bit deeper, I certainly hope there is the Star of the South. There is the proposed Seadragon offshore wind farm near Seaspray, proposed by Flotation Energy, and indeed the Macquarie proposal, but that is more on the Bass Coast on the other side of Wilsons Prom, so less likely to be a benefit to me in Corner Inlet. And at the same time we have actually got the Bass Strait oil and gas rigs now starting to wind down. There will be decommissioning, and there will be potentially a nice transition where there is decommissioning of the offshore oil and gas assets at the same time as we are building and maintaining new offshore wind farm assets. So I would hope to see great opportunities for my electorate through those ports, and I look forward to that occurring in the future.

Ms CRUGNALE (Bass) (15:49): I too rise to speak on the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. It is wonderful to get an insight into the various ports in use—and historically as well—along our coastline and into our waterways.

The global pandemic of the last two years has taught us many things. While we may feel that we have become more insular, the reality is that we are still very dependent on other countries; likewise other countries depend on us here in Victoria. We have seen the fragility of the supply chain firsthand. Even during the pandemic there were those among us who never questioned the concept of the supply chain as a global issue until we saw the pictures of that enormous cargo ship, the Ever Given, literally stuck in the Suez Canal. It was a daily reminder of how one literal plug in the system could cause chaos. For six days last March more than 100 ships were stuck at the end of the canal waiting for the Ever Given to be freed. More than 400 ships were delayed by the incident and estimates of $10 billion a day were published as the very real cost of the delay it caused. That incident alone was enough for anyone to understand how vital resilience and agility is in relation to cargo.

Historically we all know that here in Victoria the ports of Geelong, which the member for Lara spoke to, and Portland were sold to private companies during the 1990s, and the port of Melbourne was leased for 50 years in 2016. Our government understands just how vital ports are to our economy and that good governance is critical. Our government also understands the benefit of review, which is why we commissioned an independent review of the Victorian ports system back in 2019–20. Most importantly, our responsible government knows that if you commission a review, you listen to the recommendations and get on with it. We accepted all 63 of the review’s recommendations for transport, and this bill before us today will allow the implementation of those recommendations.

The review found that having different port entities leads to a high level of fragmentation in responsibilities and roles, and we have certainly had a lot of that spoken to today in this chamber. It causes less confidence in the effective functioning of the port system as a whole. The lack of a single or primary source of authority has meant inconsistencies in approaches to delivery and an inability to attract and retain high-level maritime policy and technical expertise. Combining the ports, the Victorian Ports Corporation and the Victorian Regional Channels Authority into a single agency certainly makes a lot of sense. Also, as others have said in the chamber, the bill fulfils our commitment to implement all of the review’s recommendations, less than 12 months after establishing Ports Victoria. Our government published a full response to the review in August 2021 and announced the creation of Ports Victoria on 25 February 2021, and Ports Victoria commenced operations in July of that year. I really want to commend and congratulate all those who have achieved this in such a short period of time, particularly in light of the restrictions posed by the pandemic.

The boundary changes in my electorate of Bass mean that more of Western Port Bay—it is actually to the east of Melbourne, but it is to the west of Sydney, hence the name—will be in the electorate at the end of this year and more constituents will likely be employed in port services, mainly at the port of Hastings. The port of Hastings is a key entry point to our country for bulk liquid imports and a crucial piece of our port network. This legislation changes the Port of Hastings Development Authority’s name and purpose not only to reflect its current role but for a stable future in the Victorian port system. As Victoria’s second container port will now be located at Bay West, the need for Hastings to be developed for container transport has been negated, hence the newly named Port of Hastings Corporation will not have references to its role as Victoria’s second container port.

My constituents on Phillip Island watch the activity at the port of Hastings quite closely; the import and export of crude oil, steel and LPG have been going through Western Port Bay since the 1960s. It is ideally located because of the deepwater western channel, which passes Ventnor on its way to the Bass Strait. At times over 700 vessels have been accommodated. The current estimates are around 120 vessels annually, but freight volumes are expected to more than double over the next three decades across all ports.

Returning to the legislation that sits before us in this Parliament, it embeds the establishment of Ports Victoria in legislation, replacing the Victorian Ports Corporation (Melbourne) and the Victorian Regional Channels Authority. Not only will Ports Victoria promote and facilitate trade, but it will also plan and develop for the future.

When we reflect on the lessons learnt from the Ever Given incident, the ability of Ports Victoria to participate in emergency management at a state level is paramount. Victoria has the smallest mainland coastline of any state, coming in at 1870 kilometres, and this statistic belies the fact that Victoria’s commercial ports handle the export of around $26 billion worth of locally produced and manufactured goods. Almost one-quarter of Australia’s total food and fibre exports go from our ports. We may be a small state in geographical terms, but one-quarter of exports is an astounding amount from the ports of Hastings, Melbourne, Geelong, Gippsland and Portland. To put that another way, Australia has 11 major mixed ports. Victoria has two of them, in Melbourne and Geelong. So this bill gets the regulatory settings right to protect the movement of goods—not only the movement of goods but safety for all those who work in the industry as well.

As with many industries, changes are all too often retrospective. For example, a little over 100 years ago it took the loss of 1500 people on the Titanic to put more lifeboats on ships. Our government cares about workers no matter if they are on the land, on the water or in the air, and this bill provides for Ports Victoria to license pilotage service providers and creates an offence to provide pilotage services without a licence and, as always, puts workers’ safety first by making sure that pilots demonstrate knowledge, skills and expertise of systems and harbourmaster directions, providing safe pilotage services in port waters. Ports Victoria will be required to keep a register of licensed pilotage service providers and the waters for which they are licensed because of this bill. Transport Safety Victoria will retain responsibility for licensing individual pilots and registering pilotage service providers as well. Harbourmasters will have clear responsibility and powers to ensure navigational safety in their ports. Amendments to the Marine Safety Act 2010 put it beyond doubt that pilots must comply with the directions received from harbourmasters for the purpose of navigational safety.

This bill also formalises our commitment to providing Ports Victoria with the tools it needs to implement the changes to address the high level of fragmentation that currently exists. We have defined the system to include all the various components, including the ports and the physical components, which include the waterways, roads and railways; the facilities for disembarking from ferries; the wharfs, jetties, piers and freight yards.

As always, there was extensive consultation during the independent review. As always, industry was engaged when the government response was prepared. In particular I thank the Minister for Ports and Freight. As the member for Williamstown, she knows firsthand how important our ports are to the state, to our workers, to our citizens and to our economy. I wish this a speedy passage through this house to the other house.

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (15:59): I just want to highlight how the government is harnessing the value of the port of Melbourne, that economic engine room contributing $6 billion annually to our economy. In this contribution I also want to show how the big picture extends even out to Broadmeadows and what we are looking to do as a government to create greater economic activity and more jobs. To make the point, since the lease of the port it has increased productivity by 26 per cent, and it is 30 per cent more efficient than the next best Australian port. The government is slashing the cost of the last mile—this is the critical point that we need to get right—and that is with the $125 million investment in the on-dock rail at the port. I want to address this because this is a vital link for our economic development. The new rail track will deliver a direct route from the Somerton terminal in the state district of Broadmeadows to the docks via the port of Melbourne’s $125 million project. This is of state significance. The Australian and Victorian governments are making rail freight cheaper for businesses and taking trucks off suburban roads through a $16.2 million investment in direct rail freight between the port of Melbourne and Somerton. I was delighted to have the Minister for Ports and Freight come out to Somerton. We stood there and saw: ‘Here’s the expanse on a huge site, and here is how it all connects up, so you can get your exports and your imports coming straight to these communities’. The construction and operation of the new terminal will create hundreds of jobs and will build on our strengths and assets, particularly in Melbourne’s north.

If you think back to what actually happened under previous Labor governments, if you remember we dredged the port of Melbourne and took the wholesale markets off that really vital land. We won the bid for Melbourne’s north. I was the strategist behind that bid. We got it, and it landed out at Epping. Have a look at how significant that is. It meant that it stopped the produce—and I think 80 to 90 per cent of the produce comes from the north of Victoria—and put it on a purpose-built greenfield site out at Epping; it is huge, and we take care of it there. Now, that had the impact of stopping all of this produce and trucks and everything coming through the city, going over the West Gate Bridge to that site. The value of that has now been unlocked, and that is far better. The alternative bid was down through the west. You can imagine how much extra traffic there would have been on the West Gate Bridge and how we are trying to deal with that. I just want to commend the big picture view that has been taken by Labor governments over a long period of time to actually help with productivity, efficiency and the effectiveness, and how we generate economic activity and how we get more imports and exports to where we need them most.

It has taken a Labor government to put rail back at the port, to connect it to the metro and regional intermodal hubs to keep freight moving, to introduce a nation-leading pricing model and keep the port up and running during the pandemic. That has also been important. We developed the first voluntary port performance framework in the country, and now we see fewer increases in charges, more notice of changes and stevedores actually talking to industry about the charges. So the government has led the way in increasing pricing transparency, and I just wanted to add that in response to some of the issues that have been raised by the opposition.

These protocols have formed the basis of the national model developed by the National Transport Commission. It has taken the Labor government to put that together, to put the rail back to the port and to connect it to a series of intermodal hubs. I do want to actually commend the federal National Party in coming out and helping with this development, because I remember it was then National Party leader Michael McCormack, who was Deputy Prime Minister at the time and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. This was a joint contribution from the Australian government and the Victorian government. Of course, I think we should have more of this, and we have just seen in the previous debate about the budget that this is what you need. You need these collaborations. You need these co-investments to build the big picture infrastructure for the state and the nation.

What we were able to do is get the new track to deliver a direct rail route from the Somerton terminal to the dock via the port of Melbourne and this $125 million on-dock rail project. This builds on announcements made in August of last year of a further joint investment of a $28-million link between the main rail link and Dandenong South-based Salta Properties. You have got the south, you have got the north, and here is how you bring it together. This is an example of a $110 billion nationwide infrastructure plan investing in rail freight to support economic recovery from the pandemic. This is an increase in efficiency for major freight customers at the Somerton terminal, and it boosts conditions for motorists as well. The Minister for Ports and Freight commented on that when we were there—and to the media. I think this is really how we can look at improving the governance. That is what this bill does. It covers off better compliance and better governance and brings it together under a bigger picture strategy.

It is important to note that the port users and consumers have not been financially affected by the issues identified by the Essential Services Commission in this report, and this is due to the tariff adjustment limit introduced by the government which caps price increases at CPI until at least 2032. That is important so they have got consistency. The government is committed to ensuring fair pricing and transparency at the port of Melbourne to support our exporters and importers to be cost competitive and to help Victorian businesses to thrive. I think this is something that should be acknowledged by the opposition. Here is a good approach with this overall governance, here is the vision, here is the plan, here is the strategy, here is how you knit it together. It is a benefit of national significance and of state significance for all Victorians.

Just on a couple of other propositions, the context of this is a key recommendation of the review of the Victorian ports system was that the Victorian Ports Corporation (Melbourne) and the Victorian Regional Channels Authority become one entity, and of course that is better for consistency and collaboration. Ports Victoria was established using the transport restructuring order, with effect from July last year, and this bill embeds Ports Victoria in legislation and provides for the abolition of the VPCM and the VRCA. The bill also provides for the objectives, functions and powers of Ports Victoria in accordance with recommendations of the review.

In conclusion, here is how the government has been able to say here is greater efficiency, greater effectiveness, control of costs, giving certainty. We will have a benefit of national significance and of state significance. There is the regional play out in the north, which is obviously my heartland, and I think we can get the local jobs for local people. That wraps it up beautifully, and that is the dividend that we need. I just want to make sure that people can see the value in this bill and how it brings it all together, and that is why I commend this bill to the house.

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (16:08): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.