TasFarmers Matters - Shipping fairness crucial for growth

As an island state, a cost efficient freight network and strategy are critical for the current and future success of the agricultural sector.

The State Government’s Future Agricultural Strategy must consider this in its development, including specific considerations for the Bass Strait islands.

It should provide a strategic outlook that looks ahead at least 50 years. Short-term relief lobbied for by TasFarmers has been delivered under the TFES scheme after the last federal election, with a 25 per cent increase in financial assistance.

We also sought a review, which the Federal Government has committed to and is expected to complete by early 2026.

The review is set to examine how a model that truly achieves freight-cost parity can be delivered, looking at how a scheme can be designed to deliver on the idea that the freight cost between ports is the same as putting freight onto a truck over the same distance.

The current TFES scheme continues to fall short of fulfilling its original intent despite the recent increase. It’s important to ensure the scheme doesn’t become dilapidated again.

The obvious fix is to legislate the scheme and make sure it keeps pace with costs by enshrining an annual indexation linked to actual increasing freight rate changes.

Producers, as businesses paying freight costs, must be protected to ensure increased support reaches those who need it.

During our visits to the islands last week, TasFarmers heard a consistent message that policymakers should note: any revitalisation or redesign of the scheme must be bespoke for those living and shipping goods in these remote regions, where costs are significantly higher.

We hear this same message through our annual survey, with the feedback being that the recent TFES increase has been quickly absorbed by the supply chain, rather than directly benefiting the primary users of shipping and transport services.

If the goal is true freight fairness, the next phase of the TFES must start from island communities’ reality, not from Canberra’s spreadsheets.

Beyond cost parity, shipping infrastructure and services should be included in the state’s vision for increasing annual farm gate value to $10 billion by 2025.

Only with a strong plan that invests in developing ports, harbours and shipping services and making them commercial and professional will we succeed.

Shipping infrastructure and services will need to handle livestock, fuel, feed and fertiliser in peak times and any weather conditions, while also serving the community with general cargo and supplies as well as exporting perishable goods like dairy and meat from the islands.

This month the Minister for Agriculture, Gavin Pearce, announced the Government will develop a new long-term strategy for the agricultural industry.

This presents a unique opportunity to get the policy settings right.

This can only be done by working in consultation with primary producers TasFarmers will continue to work with the Government to ensure our island homes, Tasmania, King, and Flinders Island, are not left behind.