Baird built in a secret levy, payable to Botany, on IMEX boxes handled at Newcastle over a nominal throughput level. The Newcastle Herald prised that out using FOI but Baird, Berejiklian and Pavel are insisting the levy stay – and are fighting the ACCC’s competition review. (The levy is irrelevant as Newcastle does not have a viable case anyway, lacking land infrastructure connections.)
There has been a recent cycle of commentary, when the final NSW Freight & Ports Plan was released, with Pavey saying the levy would not affect “local” or regional sourcing, Barilaro saying the Central West should access Newcastle (which violates that Policy and is virtually impossible), and Newcastle thinking they’d won as they didn’t understand the implications, again.
Sydney's Betrayals 