*Pic: ABC, of Resources Minister Paul Harriss and Premier Will Hodgman …
By Air, Land & Sea …
As a dealer in Antiques here in Tasmania with an international business I sell important objects to my clients all over the world.
I recently sold a pair of marble busts to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
It was not practical – because of their weight of nearly 400 kilos – to send them by air so I was forced to send them by sea.
The breakdown of the costs are:
1. Launceston to Melbourne $385 plus another $125 to deliver the packed busts to a consolidating point for shipment in Melbourne: $510. A distance of 550 kms (formerly read 150km)
2. Seafreight to London, a distance of 12,000kms: $505
3. Australian Handling Fees: $215
4. Total Launceston to Dockside Felixstowe: $1230
I ask this of our Brain Dead Pollies whom I am sure will never reply:
Why does it cost more to ship to Melbourne than from Melbourne to Felixstowe, the port for London?
Another important recent sale was a Brock Gravity escapement hanging regulator to an English clock dealer. As the clock weighed 104 kilos it was possible to send the clock by air and have it delivered Door to Door in UK.
Result: We did not have to deal with the Tasmanian/Melbourne wharves and docks.
It is a reflection on our sea route that it was cheaper by air Door to Door than it was to send the clock sea freight delivered to the wharf in Manchester:
1. Launceston to Melbourne: $450
2. Seafreight Melbourne to Manchester: $350
3. Australian Handling Fees: $240
4. Total to dockside Manchester $1040
5. By Air, Door Launceston to Door Market Drayton Shropshire UK, by air: $1077
No wonder Caterpillar ( ABC: Caterpillar cutback raises more fears for Tasmanian mining industry ) is leaving Tasmania. Presumably they cannot afford to get their product off this island – for it is not exactly airworthy.
Wake up Pollies: Bryan Green; did you close down Bell Bay to buy votes in Burnie?
These pollies who rule our lives, have never run a profitable business and bearing in mind the way they run this State and our Nation I suggest they never could.
The only way we can export woodchips from our native forests is to utilise this free Public resource that costs the taxpayer $50 million a year in subsidies stolen from our electricity bills to employ 500 people.
As a final insult we then pay the log truck drivers a subsidy to cart the trees to the chipper in trucks – in some cases paid for by the taxpayer.
This sure makes a truism out of FOB – Free on Board.
The shipping routes to the mainland are our highway.
Swire could not deal with Tasmanian vested interests even if we gave them $30 million.
They just walked away.
What is your next trick Paul Harriss and Will Hodgman to buy votes at the next election?
Prats.
