Legislative Council, Wednesday 2 September 2026
Ms FORREST question to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE and TRANSPORT, Mr VINCENT
Thank you, Mr President. My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure regarding the decision of TT‑Line to remove the fuel levy on passengers and vehicles. Minister, are you aware of how this decision was reached? Is it part of an overall fair and revenue management strategy that recovers additional fuel costs another way? For example, is there a reduction in low fare availability, recover fuel costs that are still remaining high, or does this come with a passenger fare and vehicle fare increase?
ANSWER
Mr. President, sorry for the short delay. I was listening to the question intently and forgot to look at my page that might help me answer that. I will just read this because this does cover a lot of what you said and then I can answer anything else that might be a query.
TT‑Lines temporary fuel charge was removed from all bookings by 1 September onwards. The 15 per cent surcharge was introduced 31 March in response to the Middle East crisis and the original aim was to fully recover the additional fuel costs associated with passenger and vehicle. Freight was already part of a surcharge. During the five months the surcharge was in place, it recovered a portion of the TT‑Line’s additional fuel cost, with the unrecovered shortfall sitting at around $2.5 million.
The company is confident any future volatility in the fuel price can be managed. What they’ve done is just to recover the extra amount going through, but there was still as of when they took it off at $2.5 million approximately shortfall in covering that. I believe with the new ships coming on board that any upsurge and it’s a tidy time to do it, but there is no intent to price that into any changes in the fuel price at this point in time as far as I’m aware, and I don’t think that is an issue.
Ms Forrest – For the fares?
Mr VINCENT – The fare increase, no. The fare increase is there. It is market driven and they’ve been pretty upfront about that from day one that the fares are the fares and the fuel surcharge was purely there to cover that difference in the lead-up. Does that cover your question, member for Murchison?
Follow-up – TT-Line – Decision to Remove Fuel Levy
Ms FORREST question to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE and TRANSPORT, Mr Vincent
I have a couple of other questions but I’ll follow up on that one first. Minister, in your response about the decision of TT‑Line to remove the fuel levy on passengers and vehicles, noting that the freight one remains, you stated that the intention was to be fully cost recovered for the additional cost of fuel, and you say it only covered a portion of that cost and there’s still a significant shortfall. Based on that, are you aware how this decision will impact cashflow and the profitability of the business?
ANSWER
I’m advised that the board is very comfortable that the shortfall is absorbable in amongst their normal trading and that’s the position they have taken at this stage after careful consideration of the pricing structure they had for that. Thank you.