Following a Competition and Infrastructure Reform review, which largely gave a clean slate for competition levels within the port, New South Wales ports minister Joe Tripodi nonetheless said port corporations would have to engage with supply chains to help improve productivity and efficiency.
Regulatory control would be looked at to enforce this message to stevedores ensuring they engaged with industry.
Patrick container ports divisional general manager Doug Schultz rejected market power inferences, saying the suggestion that stevedores were misusing market power were “a little bit dated,” and that various competition authority inquiries had failed to substantiate criticisms.