Port of Melbourne Sale Soon

 

The Coalition has used their numbers in the upper house to force a series of amendments to the governments proposed legislation to sell the port.

 

Governments have been considering incentives to tempt the highest possible price from potential buyers of assets, including non-compete clauses that prevent competing infrastructure from being built in the future close to the asset being sold.

 

The sale of the Port of Melbourne has been delayed by debate in the Victorian government over clauses that would force the government to make compensation payments to the eventual buyer if another port is developed. 

 

The irony of the vengeance politics that has scarred the privatisation of the Port of Melbourne is that, almost accidentally, it has ended up fabricating a better outcome, says a report in WSJ. 

 

Whatever the motivation, there is much to approve in a tentative agreement between the Andrews state government and the Liberal opposition that aims to more than halve the exclusivity period proposed to protect the new owner of the port from new competition. 

 

The Port of Melbourne's third stevedore wants to bring more large container ships into the bay, arguing this will boost the port's efficiency by 25 per cent, but says it has been refused and told to deal with the port's future owner. 

 

The company has labelled the Port of Melbourne Corporation's rejection of its plan "pathetic", arguing the plan would boost the value of the port and increase the size of the government's windfall from the upcoming sale.