Well, we’ve heard of some really terrible policy proposals, but the call to set up a Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Australia is probably one of worst of recent years.
In a nutshell, the forerunner of the US FMC was set up around the time World War One as an explicitly protectionist institution. Today, the FMC is still a one-sided, protectionist institution.
Calls to set up a US-style FMC in Australia are nothing more than an attempt to get politicians to change the law so as to regulate the market in favour of shippers to the detriment of everyone else.
A U.S. style FMC is un-Australian, unwanted and unnecessary!
An AUS FMC? It’s a Frankly Mad Call!
Read our opinion piece, first published in the Daily Commercial News to find out more!
Note: we oversimplified the history a bit in the original version of the above summary. We’ve added the words “the forerunner of” in front of “the US FMC” to clarify that there is a long-running protectionist history to the US FMC and its forerunners.
