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Economic regulation of harbour towage and related services

Inquiry report

Released 27 / 03 / 2003

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  • Contents

Preliminaries
Cover, Copyright, Signing Page, Terms of reference, Contents

Overview
Key points, Overview, Recommendations and findings

1   Introduction
1.1   Background
1.2   Scope of the inquiry
1.3   The Commission's approach
1.4   Conduct of the inquiry
1.5   Report structure

2   Harbour Towage and its market
2.1   The Australian harbour towage industry
2.2   Industry performance
2.3   Related services

3   Reform of harbour towage and the port environment
3.1   Towage reforms
3.2   Reform of the port environment

4   The regulatory environment for harbour towage
4.1   Commonwealth regulation
4.2   State government prices oversight
4.3   Towage guidelines
4.4   Pilotage
4.5   Training and qualifications of tug crews
4.6   Licencing and contracting of towage providers by port authorities
4.7   Port safety
4.8   Other services

5   Port authority governance
5.1   Reforms of port authorities

6   Market power in harbour towage and related services
6.1   Introduction
6.2   Competition in the supply of harbour towage services
6.3   Other determinants of market power
6.4   Indicators of current market power in towage
6.5   Market power in related services

7   Options for economic regulation of harbour towage
7.1   Notification procedures
7.2   Notifications by harbour towage operators
7.3   Assessment of notification of harbour towage services
7.4   Prices oversight options
7.5   Access and general competition law

8   Options for increasing competition in the provision of harbour towage
8.1   Generating competition 'within' the market
8.2   Generating competition 'for' the market
8.3   Issues with competitive tendering

9   The Commission's assessments and recommendations
9.1   Is economic regulation needed?
9.2   Competitive bidding, contracts and licences
9.3   Should price regulation continue?
9.4   Economic regulation of related services
9.5   Concluding remarks

A   Public consultation

B   Efficient pricing of harbour towage

C   International regulatory arrangements

D   Port ownership and governance

E   Competitive tenders, contracts and licences

F   Links between harbour towage and salvage capability

References