Call to deliver transport industry reforms

The ATA has argued the National Transport Commission (NTC) should stop work on its climate change strategy and focus on delivering transport industry reforms in a submission in response to the NTC’s discussion paper Freight Transport in a Carbon Constrained Economy.

The NTC’s discussion paper was developed separately to the Australian Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper, although it was released to industry for comment on the same day.

The ATA’s submission has been endorsed by the National Association of Forest Industries, the Cement Industry Federation and Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia.

The submission highlights that the NTC’s discussion paper was inconsistent with work already being undertaken by the Australian Government on emissions trading and the existing inter- jurisdictional process being worked through by the Council of Australian Governments.

The ATA cautioned the NTC last year that it should stay focused on delivering key productivity reforms for the trucking industry.

As a first step, the ATA believes the NTC should have defined an objective for the strategy that was consistent with the Government’s approach: achieving greenhouse results at the lowest possible cost.

ATA Chairman, Trevor Martyn said that contrary to statements in the NTC’s discussion paper, the fact that the emissions trading scheme is unlikely to be effective on its own for reducing emissions in the transport sector is not a basis for additional sectoral intervention.

“In addition, the fact that transport demand is relatively price inelastic is not a key challenge in applying an economic approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated in the freight transport sector,” Martyn said.

The ATA has argued that the whole point of the Government’s planned Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was to set an overall emissions target for the economy. Individuals and businesses would then be able to decide how to reduce their emissions in the least expensive way.

An emission trading scheme will deliver substantial emissions reductions in the parts of the economy where they can be achieved most cheaply. In the parts of the economy where it is more expensive to achieve reductions, such as the transport sector, the industry can expect reductions to be smaller.

The submission highlights the need for the NTC’s resources to be better utilised to deliver productivity reforms, such as a national B-triple network, that will be critical to reducing the emissions intensity of freight transport.

The full submission can be downloaded from the ATA Website