Oz transport regulators ripe for reform

Michael Kilgariff, managing director, ALC, said: “Australia is bedevilled by too much regulation and too much ineffective regulation.”

Currently, 23 regulatory bodies govern road, rail and maritime transport in the country – ALC is calling for this to be reduced to just three, one to govern each area. This it argues, needs to be done in order to tackle the problems of old rail stock, poor quality roads and bottlenecks at ports that contribute to major costs and delays.

A recent meeting held with the eight Australian jurisdictions in the Standing Council of Transport and Infrastructure is the culmination of two year’s work to try to inch closer to such a reform.

ALC says that although progress towards single maritime and rail regulators has been steady, when it comes roads, more work needs to be done in terms of establishing the national heavy vehicle regulator, in order to improve safety, monitor productivity and efficiency.

And this is key to help solving current infrastructure problems at Australian ports. As reported by Port Strategy earlier this year, one of Australia’s biggest worries is congestion at two of the country’s largest container ports – Sydney’s Port of Botany and Melbourne.

When it comes to Australia’s port intermodality – the realisation seems to be dawning that national infrastructure can only improve when it is tackled with a more joined-up and efficient approach.