Ausmarine editorial – December 2008
In the thirty or so years that this magazine has been published the Australian flagged cargo shipping fleet has declined by about 80 percent to 25 real cargo carrying ships.
Obviously, this is partly due to economic rationalisation and a move to larger, more efficient ships. It is mostly due, though, to the pig-headed, economically suicidal attitude of the Maritime Union of Australia and the intransigence of successive federal governments.
These latter reasons mean that no rational businessmen has invested in Australian flagged ships for the local coastal trade unless he has absolutely no choice. This ongoing government and union intransigence, combined to some degree with effective work by the trucking lobby, means we suffer from tragically inefficient – both environmentally and economically – inter and intra-state transport.
Mostly, the news about this appalling ongoing situation continues to be bad as Stuart Ballantyne describes in his column this month. However, occasionally, very occasionally, some light appears at the end of the tunnel. Peter Martin's report on the very constructive meeting held recently in Sydney is encouraging.
You don't need to be Einstein to understand that most interstate and even intra-state cargoes would be more economically transported by sea. The same applies to the environmental and health and safety benefits of sea transport.
You don't even need to be Einstein to realise that the union and government problems could be solved relatively easily. In both cases all they need to understand is the fundamental concept that ten percent of something is worth a whole lot more than 100 percent of nothing, which is what we're getting now.
Further, both sides need to understand that the "dreaded" issue of cabotage is really a non-issue. If more cargo was moved by sea, even in foreign flagged ships, the MUA would still benefit because of increased stevedoring activity. The government, of whatever political colour would win from fewer emissions; less wear and tear on the roads; less hydrocarbon consumption; and, importantly, less road accident trauma.
More counter-productive government
We have published some very important comments from Sydney Fish Markets' Managing Director, Grahame Turk, in this issue. They were contained in the recently released SFM Annual Report for 2007-2008.
Mr Turk's comments highlight the immense destruction that has been wreaked upon our fishing industry and the health of the general Australian populace by the insane policies of our various governments. The extreme green idealogue "lunatics" have effectively taken over the government fisheries management "asylum".
As Dick Lee, Hagen Stehr and Grahame Turk all point out in this issue, the entire Australian community suffers because of this. Our balance-of-trade is whacked. Exports of seafood have declined significantly just as imports have increased. Entire coastal communities have been decimated. The wider population pays more for lower quality fish.
As with coastal shipping, our state and federal government conspiracy to destroy our fishing industry has resulted in a lose/lose situation. What a tragedy. And so completely unnecessary. We all need to work harder to highlight to our politicians the absolute lunacy of their actions over the last thirty years.
Meanwhile, all of us at Baird Publications hope that you and your families have a happy and peaceful Christmas break. We also hope that 2009 will be much better for you than 2008 has been.
