Port privatisation funds should be used to fund infrastructure projects

The Australian Logistics Council (ALC) welcomes confirmation the Victorian Government is investigating the privatisation of Victorian ports but is encouraging the government to ensure the funds raised from the process are recycled into productive logistics infrastructure.

“The decision taken by the Victorian Government to assess the future ownership of Victoria’s ports is in the state’s long term interests and is welcomed by the freight logistics industry,” said Michael Kilgariff, ALC Managing Director. “ALC has been advocating to governments for some time to identify appropriate infrastructure assets that can be recycled and we are pleased there is now a bi-partisan approach to this issue in Victoria. Port of Melbourne is ideally suited to being leased long-term to release funds for road and rail infrastructure. As part of this examination, we encourage the government to carefully consider the economic benefits of ensuring the funds that are raised from any long term lease or privatisation are directed at future logistics infrastructure projects. In particular, the funds raised could go towards the landside logistics requirements generated by the new Port of Hastings.

Containerised imports and exports from Victoria are set to almost quadruple over the coming decades and the city needs the right road and rail infrastructure to meet this growing demand. We encourage the government to follow the lead of the NSW Government, which is directing a bulk of the funds raised from the long term lease of Port Botany and Port Kembla to Restart NSW for future infrastructure projects, such as West Connex,” he said.

Mr Kilgariff said a potential option open to the Victorian Government was to offer the Port of Melbourne and Port of Hastings to the market together.