Another priority on the lobbying agenda, an issue that has been high on Superyacht Australia’s radar for a considerable amount of time, is lobbying for access for foreign flagged vessels to charter in Australian waters. 

This issue has been ongoing and the working group have invested considerable time and money in attending meetings in Canberra on this issue.  A driver for investing in the Economic Impact Study was to define for Federal Government the value of the industry and the increased economic impact if foreign flagged vessels were able to charter here. 

In January, Superyacht Australia were asked to prepare a discussion document for the Hon Darren Chester’s team (Minister for Infrastructure and Transport), which was completed and special thanks must go to David Good, Ports North, for the work he did on this for the group. 

By way of update, the last Coastal Shipping bill gave industry a lot of hope, but it was lost in the Senate. As of last week Minister Chester has put out another discussion document with a view of getting feedback from Industry and resubmitting a bill to drive coastal reform. The charter issue working group are preparing a submission and will submit this by the 28 April. 

Thanks must go to the working group for their continued efforts in driving this issue; Joachim Howard – Ocean Alliance, Cameron Bray – Northrop & Johnson Australia, David Good – Ports North, Kane Bygrave – Aurora Yacht Logistics and Luke McCaul – Abell Point Marina. 

Media and PR enquiries: info@oceanalliance.com.au to find out more.
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