Less than a month after the Australian deputy prime minister introduced a bill into parliament to ease restrictions on chartering, the legislation is now law. Foreign-flagged superyachts can charter in Australia essentially immediately, in fact, due to bipartisan approval that came today.
While the speed with which the legislation passed is astonishing, the effort was not an overnight success. For example, similar bills went before the Australian Senate, one house of parliament, in both 2015 and 2018. Specifically, these bills strove to make changes in the country’s Coastal Trading Act to allow yachts to charter. The Coastal Trading Act grants licenses authorizing vessels to carry passengers or cargo between ports in the country. Neither of these bills, though, passed the Senate.
The bill submitted at the end of November still involved the Coastal Trading Act, but with differences. This time, government officials had yachts considered separately from the disagreements over coastal cargo operations. This led to the bipartisan support and final ruling today, the last legislative session of the year.
For the immediate future, foreign-flagged superyachts can charter in Australia under a coastal trading temporary license. This eliminates two big roadblocks that the trade association Superyacht Australia, and others, pointed to repeatedly as examples of bad policy. For one, previously, owners needed to fully import their yachts into the country. Second, owners needed to pay a 10-percent goods-and-services tax (GST) on the full value of the yacht. By contrast, now, yachts are protected from importation. Owners do still need to pay a 10-percent GST, but on the charter value, not hull value.
Superyacht Australia has the long-term goal to amend the Coastal Trading Act further, to bring the country’s policy more in line with what neighboring countries allow. Regardless, it considers the law a big victory. “The ability to charter in Australia now supplements charter in New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea,” says David Good, CEO of Superyacht Australia. It therefore “reinforces the South Pacific as a destination of choice for superyachts.”
The timing is key. Foreign-flagged superyachts can charter in Australia ahead of the Tokyo Olympics starting next July, for example. They can do the same before and after the America’s Cup in Auckland in 2021. Plus, Superyacht Australia is hosting a special event in Sydney Harbor on February 22 as a celebration and showcase. The Grand Soiree is open to all interested.
Superyacht Australia superyacht-australia.com
Leave a Reply