The Australian Government announced that from 1 July 2018, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) will be the only service provider under the National System for Domestic Commercial Vessel Safety (national system). States and the Northern Territory will stop delivering services and charges at this time.
Namely, Australia will allocate an additional $10 million funding for the national system, increasing its total contribution to $65 million over ten years, and increasing total funding by all governments to $112.4 million.
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This funding means no levy to the industry for the first three years of AMSA’s service delivery, in order to help all operators as services transition.
This will provide two more years for AMSA to communicate with industry on important matters such as:
- Efficient and effective ways to deliver services to industry;
- Opportunities to reduce costs to industry without compromising safety;
- Ways to reduce administrative burden so industry can get on with the job.
Fees for services will start on 1 July 2018 for the services AMSA will provide to individuals, such as issuing safety certification to vessels and seafarers, and accrediting marine surveyors.
AMSA is also issuing a new Certificate of Survey and the fee for a Certificate of Survey renewal will be reduced from $366 to $206.
Unpowered vessels used in commercial hire and drive operations such as canoes and kayaks will be exempt from the levy, and remain exempt from levy.
A review of all costs and charges for the national system will be conducted in 2020-2021 and involve wide public consultation.
The review will consider how appropriate are the fees and charges for the national system, with the benefit of two years of nationally consistent data on the risk and effort required to implement the national system.
