LETTER TO DCN: Newcastle box port “stuck in the slow lane”

LIBERAL shadow minister for the Hunter, Scott Farlow, told state Parliament recently that Newcastle’s proposed $2.4 billion container terminal was being held up by the Minns government.

Premier Chris Minns told Parliament in March last year that a container terminal would cost taxpayers between $600 million and $4.3 billion in compensation payments to the private operator of Port Botany, NSW Ports, as a result of losing container shipping business, if a container terminal is built at the Port of Newcastle.

“The [Newcastle] port operators have cleared the decades-old financial hurdles to build the multipurpose deepwater container terminal,” Mr Farlow said.

“That terminal is ready to go.

“It will create over 19,000 new jobs and save New South Wales regional businesses hundreds of dollars per container by bypassing congested Sydney. It is a genuine game changer.

 “But with this state Labor government, it is stuck in the slow lane. The government is failing to provide the political urgency to streamline planning approvals and enable the critical rail and road linkages needed to connect the private investment to our regional economy,” Mr Farlow said.

Port operator Port of Newcastle Investments Pty Ltd paid the state government $13 million on 30 April 2024 to extinguish its liability to re-imburse the government for the cost of compensating NSW Ports.

In a related development, the High Court is to hear an appeal on December 4 to the legality of the ports leasing arrangements under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA).

Mayfield Development Corporation Pty Ltd is claiming that the leasing arrangements are illegal under the CCA. Mayfield is being supported by the ACCC.

The ACCC lost a similar action against NSW Ports in 2021.

This letter to DCN was submitted by a reader. Any views or opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of DCN.