Merchant Marine Vessels
As of 2006, the Australian fleet consists of 53 ships of 1,000 gross register tons or over. The use of foreign registered ships to carry Australian cargoes between Australian ports is permitted under a permit scheme, with either Single Voyage Permit (SVP) or a Continuous Voyage Permit (CVP) being issued to ships. Between 1996 and 2002 the number of permits issued has increased by about 350 per cent.
Over recent years the number of Australian registered and flagged ships has greatly declined, from 75 ships in 1996 to less than 40 in 2007, by 2009 the number is now approaching 30. Marine unions blame the decline on the shipping policy of the Howard Government which permitted foreign ships to carry coastal traffic. There have also been cases where locally operated ships have Australian flag from the vessel, registering it overseas under a flag of convenience, then hiring foreign crews who earn up to about half the monthly rate of Australian sailors. Such moves were supported by the Howard Government but opposed by maritime unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The registration of the ship overseas also meant the earnings of the ships are not subject to Australian corporate taxation laws.
| Statistics for the shipping industry of Australia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total: 53 ships (1,000 gross register tons (GRT) or over) | |||||
| Totalling: 1,361,000 GRT/1,532,874 metric tons deadweight (DWT) | |||||
| Cargo ships | |||||
| Bulk ships | 17 | ||||
| Cargo ship | 4 | ||||
| Container ships | 1 | ||||
| Roll-on / roll-off ships | 5 | ||||
| Tankers | |||||
| Liquefied gas tanker ships | 4 | ||||
| Chemical tanker ships | 3 | ||||
| Petroleum tanker ships | 6 | ||||
| Passenger ships | |||||
| General passenger ships | 6 | ||||
| Combined passenger/cargo | 7 | ||||
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| Source: This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. | |||||
Read more about this topic: Transport In Australia
Famous quotes containing the words merchant marine, merchant, marine and/or vessels:
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“God has a hard-on for a Marine because we kill everything we see. He plays His game, we play ours.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“So near along life’s stream are the fountains of innocence and youth making fertile its sandy margin; and the voyageur will do well to replenish his vessels often at these uncontaminated sources.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)