WYNDHAM’S export businesses will feel the pinch of a new $75million Port of Melbourne licence fee that will raise costs for all users, according to an industry expert.
Former Wyndham Industrial Liaison and Development Committee chairman Barry Harvey said the price rise would be a ‘‘huge impost’’ on exporters in Laverton North, particularly with a soaring Australian dollar.
The new licence fee replaces the former Labor state government’s proposed freight infrastructure tax, which had aimed to raise $1billion over a decade.
But Opposition ports spokesman and Tarneit Labor MP Tim Pallas said the new state government fee amounted to a 50per cent increase on most user charges.
‘‘Premier Ted Baillieu has been embarrassed by revelations that industry opposition to his proposed port tax is growing and becoming increasingly vocal,’’ he said.
Mr Pallas said the ‘‘cash-grab’’ would lead to higher operational costs for export businesses and a price hike for consumers.
‘‘Every step of the supply chain will be affected by these charges.’’
Mr Harvey, former owner of Laverton North-based business Polar Cold Storage, said the fee could be the nail in the coffin for struggling export businesses.
‘‘With the high Australian dollar, the last thing we want is the price of containers to go up,’’ he said.
Ports Minister Denis Napthine’s spokesman Mark Lee said the government had reworked Labor’s proposed tax — which would have applied to container trucks entering the Port of Melbourne — into a ‘‘fairer and more efficient’’ system.
He said revenue generated under the new licence fee would be used to boost Victoria’s ports, freight and logistics infrastructure.
The Weekly contacted businesses in the Laverton North industrial precinct that use the Port of Melbourne, but none were prepared to comment.
