Australian Shipping Industry Reform – Coastal Trading Bill

Introduction

The Australian government recently announced a package of reforms aimed at revitalising the Australian shipping industry. These reforms involve the following four elements:

• tax reform
• the creation of an Australian International Shipping Register (AISR)
• a new licensing regime
• workforce skills development.

The key elements of the reforms will be the tax exemptions and the AISR. Australia is competing with quality shipping registries, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK to attract ships onto its register. Costs savings that may be produced by these reforms are what will attract ships to the AISR. Our discussions with key players in the industry indicate that tax exemptions alone will not necessarily make Australia a persuasive business proposition when it comes to the registration of ships.