BMSB UPDATE 32 - ongoing delays and costs

Following from yesterday's notice "Escalation to the Minister", Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) had a practical and constructive meeting with a senior Ministerial policy advisor in terms of a way forward in the management of BMSB.
 
FTA again reiterated a position as follows:
 

·         ongoing industry engagement must be maintained to work our way through the immediate season;

·         a need exists for a focussed, independently facilitated Post Implementation Review (PIR);

·         the PIR to commence immediately in the new year to allow maximum preparation time to implement changes well in advance of the 2019 / 2020 BMSB season; and

·         additional resources, potentially funded via the new 1 July 2019 Biosecurity Import Levy, to be directed to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to pay for necessary process reform, additional officers (potentially beyond the existing regulated ASL cap) and systems enhancements - in terms of cost recovery arrangements, FTA also requested intervention at a Ministerial level to be included onto the formal Imports Industry Finance Consultative Committee (IIFC).

While the government is clearly feeling the heat about the introduction of the Biosecurity Import Levy - refer HERE, the much larger issue of BMSB is yet to hit the media headlines. Before we crank up our media campaign, we gave a commitment to the government to address our concerns and potentially turn this into a "good news" story. We reinforced that our public support would be contingent on this not being media "spin", but a genuine approach to address industry's needs and to best manage the biosecurity risk.

 
A general update:
 

·         An ad hoc teleconference was held this morning between the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and industry representatives looking at some immediate and longer term measures to improve processing – further details will be released next week;

·         While the S-Cargo system is reportedly up and running (albeit with some ongoing notable glitches), the department is clearly still catching up on the back-log on releasing FAK/LCL containers from the stevedores. This is resulting in ongoing substantial storage charges and in some cases, hazardous cargo penalties administered by the ports;

·         FTA has also received requests from members to seek financial relief from stevedores on container storage, asking for an additional day of free storage from the time that he department issues a release. While similar arrangements exist for border targeted CEF containers, the stevedores do not offer do this out of the goodness of their hearts. They accommodate this as a part of contracted arrangement and it is our understanding that they receive direct financial compensation from the Australian Border Force for any delay in cargo release (note – extended storage if prescribed conditions are met - refer HERE). While FTA will continue to explore compensations options, it is unlikely that the department will follow this model and even more unlikely that stevedores will voluntarily offer any blanket relief in storage arrangements for delays related to BMSB;

·         On a more positive note and adding to the relief measures in Sydney, we are pleased to advise that one of FTA's major sponsors, Price & Speed , have announced the opening of their third depot operation – refer HERE; and