Revealing the Privatisation of Newcastle Port

Today Abigail supported a motion to reveal the NSW Liberal-National Government's secret privatisation deal with the Newcastle Port which are restricting development and having adverse economic affects on workers in the Upper Hunter.

In supporting the motion, Abigail said (11:44):

On behalf of The Greens, I support the motion moved by the Hon. John Graham. The current arrangements at the Port of Newcastle restrict development and diversification for both the port and the region. The conditions are effectively a protection racket which extracts prohibitive tariffs from users of the Port of Newcastle and pays them to the owners of Port Botany. It was a terrible decision on the part of the Government in 2013, and The Greens agree that it must now be overturned to allow for transition and diversification in the upper Hunter. The upper Hunter is ready to transition away from coal export. Global coal markets have been falling since 2013 and are now stagnant. Workers and their communities know that they must transition and they expect their governments to take all necessary actions to support that.

According to the former dean of UTS Business School, Professor Ray Green, manufacturing and industry in the Hunter are becoming more diverse and smaller in scale with highly globalised markets. A more diverse port with a functional and viable container terminal is required to facilitate imports and exports for those markets. A terminal is also essential for agriculture exports, a key component of the upper Hunter economy. It will create 9,500 jobs according to Lock the Gate and $6 billion in economic stimulus according to a 2019 AlphaBeta study. Mining industry workers are ready to transfer their skills to transport, warehousing and manufacturing. The earlier we assist with that transition, the more just and equitable it will be.

The current arrangements at the Port of Newcastle increase costs for business, put more freight on our already congested roads and put a handbrake on the upper Hunter economy, all to ensure a monopoly on container freight for NSW Ports and its investors. The effect of the deal is to double the cost of freight out of Newcastle. Newcastle basically has to pay Botany $1 million per ship if three or more container ships leave Newcastle in a single year. I note that there seems to be some contrary information coming from the Government in relation to that. When it says there is a cap but there is not a prohibition, is the Government implying that the cap only becomes a prohibition in certain circumstances or that there is not actually a cap which can act as a prohibition? It feels like the Government is playing with semantics. It is not the role of government to prop up one port at the expense of another nor to prevent diversification of infrastructure required by communities. The Greens condemn any privatisation that needs secret deals or protection rackets. Those deals must be exposed and overturned.

To see the full debate, visit Hansard here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Revealing the Privatisation of Newcastle Port

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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