A $95 million investment in the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme (TFES) will help local industry compete.
The scheme offers shippers financial assistance to reduce the higher cost of shipping eligible goods across the Bass Strait.
Unlike their mainland counterparts, Tasmanian shippers don’t have the option of transporting goods interstate by road or rail, thereby reducing their competitiveness.
This funding will deliver an increase of 25% from the existing rebate rates, putting Tasmanian businesses and shippers on a more competitive footing.
Tasmanian businesses will now get higher assistance rates from the government of up to $1,070 per TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit, the standard size of a shipping container) under the scheme’s domestic component.
For goods being shipped from Tasmania to the world and transferred from one ship to another at mainland ports in the process, plus international goods being imported to Tasmania via a mainland port, the flat rate of assistance will increase to $875 per TEU.
The funding applies to eligible non-bulk goods moved by sea across the Bass Strait, including those used by the manufacturing, mining, agriculture, forestry and fishing industries.
The Australian Government is also commissioning a review into the scheme this year to make sure Tasmanian businesses are supported into the future.
The review will investigate the original policy objectives of the TFES and whether these objectives remain fit-for-purpose, and whether changes to the design or administration of the schemes are needed to better serve those objectives.
The review will also consider the role of the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme in reducing the cost of passenger vehicles being moved across Bass Strait. Read more on the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme.
Find out more and read the Minister’s release.