An island without boats: Australia’s looming shipping problem
An island without boats: Australia’s looming shipping problem
Australia may be surrounded by water, but when it comes to imports and exports we are at the mercy of foreign fleets.
That’s the concern of Ports Australia CEO Michael Gallacher.
“A few generations ago we had over a hundred vessels sadly now we’ve got less than a dozen,” he told 9News.
“We very much are restricted to a lot of the ships coming out of Asia, particularly Chinese based.”
While China owns more than 5000 vessels, Greece 4199, Japan 3901 and Germany 3090, Australia has just 47 bulk carriers.
As a consequence, almost all our essentials are brought in by foreign-flagged ships.
It’s a national security concern as well as an economic one, says Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
“We believe it is important that Australia have a trained source of