Shipping review urged

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 6

Shipping review urged

NZPA Canberra The Australian and New Zealand Governments needed to get together on Tasman shipping arrangements in an effort to reduce freight rates, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Australia, Sir Laurie Francis, has said. Sir Laurie said that “radical surgery” was needed on the shipping arrangements between the two countries.

“The concept of the Tasman Sea being the dearest lake in the world for the transport of goods is one we must dispel,” he said. “We will not dispel it unless we are able to bring Eressure to bear after delieration and to introduce some political clout. “I believe that is the only way to achieve not an immediate success but a gradual progression towards a better deal.” Sir Laurie made his comments in giving the William Fraser Memorial Lecture at the Chartered Institute of

Transport in Canberra. He said both Governments had grasped the nettle over Closer Economic Relations and had not allowed it to wither on the vine. “It is my belief that with C.E.R. now firmly in position and more than a year old, it is indeed time for a change in our on-going transport arrangements.” “Surely we can get together on this,” Sir Laurie said. Since his arrival in Canberra in 1976 three Government inquiries into Tasman shipping had culminated in a New Zealand White Paper. “I firmly believe that in such an important matter as Tasman freight, questions of principle and of substance should not be left solely to officials from both our countries.” Sir Laurie said there had been much talk about monopolistic elements in Tasman shipping and the Union Steam Ship Company

of New Zealand had been cited in this way. However, a new venture - 5.C.0.N.Z./A.N.L. - had now emerged and the new competition would be an incentive to keep rates down. “Even so, it would seem that there is scope for further improvement in levels of service and rates of freight,” he said. Sir Laurie said there had been a mystique to the average layman of what shipping freights were all about. “This mystique has been left as being in the too-hard-for-remedial-action basket.” However, the same mystique did not seem to apply to air transport. He said that in the year ended March, 1973, 9877 tonnes of freight were carried by air, and in 1983 this figure had reached 43,175 tonnes. Last year, 13,479 tonnes went from Australia to New Zealand and 29,696 tonnes in the other direction.

Wellington had seen the most rapid rise in freight — 1950 tonnes in 1980 compared with 5711 tonnes in 1983 — and considerable pressure was being placed on that airport’s cargohandling facilities. Sir Laurie said the Wellington Airport Authority was investigating additional cargo terminal facilities. Significant future growth which was likely to come about with C.E.R. might have to await the arrival of new-generation aircraft.