THE Port of Newcastle’s plans for a container terminal have hit another road block in the form of a new, five-year state government Freight and Ports Plan that says Port Kembla will be the next terminal developed after Port Botany.
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While the contents of the plan are not a surprise, they are another strong indication of the opposition the privatised Port of Newcastle faces in diversifying beyond coal.
As the Newcastle Herald revealed in 2016, the Coalition protected Botany and Kembla from container competition after privatisation with a secret fee on any Newcastle container development. If Newcastle began with 200,000 to 350,000 containers a year, it would have to pay $20 million and $35 million a year to the government, which would pass the money to Botany.
Ignoring the fee, the plan released on Monday insists that “current arrangements do not prohibit the development of a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle”.
But it says: “Port Kembla has been identified as the location for the development of a future container terminal to augment capacity of Port Botany when required.”
Acknowledging that a Newcastle container terminal was one of the “key issues raised by stakeholders”, the plan says it “recognises the interest in . . . diversifying and expanding the port’s trade base”.
But it says there are “medium to long-term constraints on this expansion”, including the “pressures on the shared rail network in the Upper Hunter Valley and access via the New England and Golden highways”.
A freight rail bypass of Newcastle has long been viewed as key to the port’s expansion, and the plan describes this as an “initiative for investigation”.
The bypass is still more than 10 years away, with planning “progressing’ and corridor protection “planned”.
Port of Newcastle chief executive Craig Carmody said the port remained committed to the container terminal.
He said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had begun its investigation of the Newcastle fee and he hoped its report would be finished by the end of the year.
Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
