Shipping Australia has been watching the unfolding – and wholly avoidable – crisis in north west Australia with mounting concern.
Today, 8 March 2023, on local radio and in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie made an impassioned call for Minister Catherine King, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, to issue a “section 11 exemption”.
Under Prime Minister Albanese’s Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Act 2012, it is generally unlawful for international ships to deliver cargo from one Australian port to another (although it should be noted there is a costly, convoluted, and cumbersome licensing process to allow this to happen).
The international shipping industry is currently unable to deliver desperately needed relief from other Australian ports to the Port of Wyndham in the eastern Kimberley region, which has been cut off from the rest of Australia by floods.
A section 11 exemption would allow international ships to deliver food, everyday goods, and other essential aid to Wyndham from other Australian seaports.
International ocean shipping vessels regularly call at the Port of Darwin which, in ocean-shipping terms, is quite nearby. Wyndham is about a day, to a day-and-a-half, sailing time from Darwin. The Port at Wyndham is close to the centre of the cut-off area and it is capable of taking ocean vessels that can carry and load / unload hundreds – or even over a thousand – of containers of food aid in one sailing. Each twenty-foot container can carry a payload of over 28,000 kilograms of food and other supplies.
However, we note with concern the reports from the ABC that the authorities are going to rely on a small tug and barge operation to deliver food aid. From the ABC’s imagery, the tug and barge only appears to be able to deliver four or so containers worth of food aid at a time.
How is that going to feed in excess of 9,000 people? How is that going to feed, clothe, and supply them on a sustainable basis?
We also note from the ABC that food aid by tug-and-barge and by air may take many days to arrive. The ABC reporting also noted that authorities had spoken to private landside freight operators who, it appears, were unable to help.
This news is both concerning and disappointing. In early 2022 there were floods in South Australia that cut off landside transport infrastructure and access to Western Australia. Then-Transport Minister, Barnaby Joyce, quickly issued a s.11 exemption and the Department of Infrastructure worked collaboratively with Shipping Australia and our members, which ensured that food and other everyday goods that families need arrived in Western Australia.
This crisis in the Kimberley has been going on since at least January this year.
We have not been contacted either by Minister King’s office, or by her Department, about this crisis. We have spoken to several of our members and they have indicated that, they could potentially have made a decision take part in relief and possibly even have begun operations (depending upon a wide range of factors) within a couple of weeks.
Why has the Minister not already given a section 11 exemption?
Why are the people of the Kimberley region forced to rely on a small tug-and-barge operation, and a Defence Force air-operation, for food and everyday goods?
Why has there not already been a seaborne relief response by either the Federal Government or the Western Australian government?
Both governments have maritime-knowledgeable officials and the doors of Shipping Australia are always open to governments who are seeking maritime-related input.
Captain Melwyn Noronha, CEO Shipping Australia, commented, “this is a shameful and disappointing situation. This is the year 2023. The WA Government and the Federal Government ought to be ashamed for letting regional Australians fall into a situation where they might run out of fresh food for their kids and where they can describe their people as being in danger of starting to starve.
“The government response – whether State or Federal – has been lacking in terms of timeliness and scale. Responding with a small tug-and-barge delivery in March to the severing of freight infrastructure in January is pathetic.
“It is highly disappointing that the Federal Government has not meaningfully responded by enabling vessels from the international fleet to deliver food aid. Remember, early last year, landside supply chains to Western Australia were cut by floods. It was the international shipping fleet that delivered desperately needed essential goods to Australian families”.
Shipping Australia calls upon Minister King, and the Federal Government, to engage with the international ocean shipping industry so as to deliver basic and essential needs to regional Australians who appear to be in an increasingly desperate situation.
