Thanks so much for all of your interest in the petition. It’s currently been lodged with the Committee in charge of reviewing petitions, and if it’s approved, we’ll be able to sign it. I’ll provide an update as soon as possible.

$219,000 is crazy. No wonder ships don't wait for people that are late.

Greedy, short-sighted government. This also affects our food producers supplying the ships.

I absolutely feel your frustration and anger, cruising in Australia is going downhill and it’s very upsetting 😔

Very Sad situation that the Government are not taking this seriously. Happy to sign.

Cruising in Australia has become a complete joke. Obviously the government doesn't give a sh*t. Is this petition public? If so, post it here so we can all sign it.

Happy to sign Adrian, also disappointed in Australia and the greedy Govts.

After having our 37 night cruise on Grand Princess next year cancelled we are turning our backs on cruising. We feel that cruising post COVID has changed and will not return to what we once enjoyed. The Australian market is not what it once was, so agree with your sentiments…

We are ANGRY as well!!!!! The port of Melbourne has NOTHING NOW due to our Govt. Pricing with RCCL for a GS category for Xmas now is 5 (FIVE) times the price we paid pre covid. We too, can see that Australia is being shunned by the cruise industry. Very UPSETTING. Thanks for all your UPDATES...much appreciated.

Great points Adrian. One more aspect: we are largely unwilling to pay for the services the cruise lines provide. In a FB group for a popular ship I see people complaining about costs of what is an objectively very good value offering. We need regulatory change as well as a shift in mindset from passengers.

Thank you for standing up for those of us who love cruising and are so disappointed with what is happening here in Australia!😢. Happy to sign a petition!

I live in New Zealand,I love cruising and am very sorry for Australia and New Zealand 😢

How sad for years ago when I was a Cruise Director on the TSS Fairstar we stayed overnight in Sydney which was a relief for many personal reasons. In addition, even though the Fairstar did t have the most modern of facilities people truly loved it for many reasons which included an egalitarian culture and feel to it which is why around 1.2 million cruised on it and still miss her. Having been on a couple of these newer monsters there is no comparison and as for today’s berthing fees, they are a total disgrace.

P&O was one of the few companies that had consistent cruises available out of Fremantle. It’s bad news for WA as well

We will 100% be standing behind you Adrian and rounding up support. Again our government are letting us down. Thank you for being the voice for reason! I’ll be sharing this video too.

You go get em Adrian, so happy that you are putting up the fight for all us Aussies that love cruising.

I would definitely sign. Thanks for keeping us updated.

" not sustainable " is the most worrying comment. I think a reduction of 30% is understating the future. Thanks Adrian .

So gutted with the recent changes. For us NZers we have to add an extra $1200+ per couple just to get on a cruise. We really have to look at where we cruise to now.

Well said Mate. Thanks for standing up. I will definitely sign...

We are prepared to sign this petition…thank you for opening our eyes on this. Great work Adrian.

I’m with you Adrian. Our pollies talk incessantly about the importance of tourism and yet regularly kick the cruising industry in the teeth. Their ignorance about the industry and their inability to understand the wishes of a large section of their constituents is appalling. They should be forced to justify the port charges. Catherine King should be sacked for incompetence. The NZ government needs to justify its absurdly pernickety stance on hull cleaning. Good luck with the petition.

we are behind you Adrian

Yup, I’ll be signing! Hubby and I have just started cruising (second one happening in December) and it’s expensive enough just having to flying in port the day before, pay for accomodation etc for the night before without having the Lines jack up prices because of annoying government laziness.

I will gladly sign your petition. Cruises are the best experience for a holiday that offers everything in one package. Thank you for bringing this information to our attention.

So glad we managed to do our Australia circumnavigation in March this year ! 🙏

Congratulations on your proactive project. We agree and didn't realise our port fees and lack of facilities were so prohibitive for cruise ships. It's refreshing to see an Australian addressing our issues. We live in Brisbane with a relative new port that is hardly used. Our last three cruises were from Sydney adding both time and money onto out trips. Liked and subscribed ❤

every thing in australia is broken, the goverment has failed and the only way out is to keep increasing tax and charges. we cant afford rent let alone a cruise.

Well done Adrian. Here! Here!

This is typical Australia, costs are continuing to spiral out of control, and the Australian government doesn't care; not at all......

We get all the old ships and they are gaudy at best. Carnival have very limited routes and it is becoming stale. Sydney has poor infrastructure, Melbourne jacked up port prices so ships now sail out of Geelong which is a pain and during the summer months when the other lines come to Australia they are so much more expensive and everything is in USD which means you actually price on board is times 1.5.

We all should have seen this coming when Sea, Dawn, and Sun Princess were removed after the shut-down.

Hi Adrian, Trish and I are definitely happy to sign..Thanks for bringing these issues to the forefront 👍

Our cruise group totally support your attitude. We have also contacted the Federal Minister for Tourism love this matter. I have also arranged for an ePetition. Just waiting now on response.

Happy to sign, so sad to see cruising go this way.

We need something done to sort these things out so we passionate cruisers can go freely without hindrances holding down our cruise industry in Australia we need something done and quickly too

I’m cranky too Adrian!

We are all behind you on this Adrian.

In Australia we are pricing ourselves out of the market, Ships used to bypass Adelaide & dock in Melbourne, road freight the goods to Adelaide as it was cheaper. The cost to the cruise company is driving them away & who can blame them. Very short sighted from the powers to be.

I feel people only want the big new ships like what Royal and Celebrity has. They don't want to pay big money for 20 year old ships that are dated.

I'm more than happy to sign, Adrian

I’m disappointed that QE won’t be homeported in Australia after this summer!

Happy to sign

Spot on and well said.

The AU cruise industry is not 'profitable' for the cruise companies : we DON'T have those SHORT 'DRINK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE' cruises such as the 1 week US ones ! Remember it's about the $$$$ and getting as much as possible per passenger. Australians are a more older crowd - and the cruises are longer - and don't start on the weekends (Miami). Comparing the AU ports to others - is just 'cheap' - many Asian cities have crap ports - eg Bangkok is KMs away - Ho Chi Min is 1 hour away (industrial port) - HK is the old airport !! I'm now looking at Mediterranean cruises - which are cheaper (given the flights / accommodation / cruise).

Unfortunately I don't think it will change.. much like airports, the passenger fees are essentially a pass through. Our high minimum wages means higher costs to operate these facilities.

Sydney Airport Aeronautical Charges for international flights (anyone flying international out or in to SYD) was 48.40AUD (1st JAN 2024). The domestic fees (there are 5 of them) adds up to 17.40AUD per person..Regional fees (for regional flights) is even less ..so basically even for domestic cruises the industry is charged similar fees like that of international flights..

Happy to support the petition Adrian. One thing I'm noticing affecting solo cruisers is that fares are pretty much the price for two on most sailings. I guess on P&O that is double minus the extra food cost of $9 !!

Australia is now wide open for a Cruiseline like Ambassador or the old CMV. Concentrating on departs from Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. Picking from the most in demand list of cancelled cruise slots leaving Sydney and Brisbane - filling those slots.

We are giving Cruises a miss for a while. The standards and quality have dropped significantly in many area, particularly P&O who were starting from a pretty low benchmark to start with.

It’s all about $. The co are biz. They go where they make the most money. Supply demand. Whats there to be disappointed. We get most of the old ships anyway. Home ported here. Pay more. Get quality.

Happy to sign the petition.

I would like to see the break-up of the cost and why it should be so high.

Looks like the port Melbourne port will be closed for us ..darn shame Who the heck wants to go to SYD or BNE - we have a good port here in MEL

Signature forthcoming when you require it Adrian. Australian Government definitely needs to do better with regards to the cruise industry (and many other things).

If you are going to compare costs between Aus and USA you will need to talk about the exchange rates. Our $ is worth nothing relatively

Ah its all making sense now 😢

This makes me wonder if any of these reasons are behind RCCI continuing to delay releasing their April 2026 transpacific sailings when all other lines have had theirs out for months.

they don't want the cruises here , they wouldn't allow them to run supposedly due to covid but they allowed plane flights . And even before flights were allowed they still allowed the cruises to run on the Murray river .

I knew about the extravagant high port charges because I was against the move from Melbourne to Geelong ferry crossing then Covid had to destroy everything , I got my money back , but it was not what I wanted, a cruise , love cruising. Need some people to share a 4 birth cabin as we all have some cruising to do why it is here, if any takers. Bless you for breaking the reason , our greedy government wants all now a pay rise higher than many of us earn.

I will sign

The old 'self-fulfilling prophecy' in marketing. Times are tough, we're not making enough money or seeing enough customers so lets put the prices up. Then there's the Government. They love cash cows and overcharging for docking is an easy cash grab. With Sydney Harbour bridge in the way there's only half the harbour to work with so finding more/ cheaper berths is a big issue. I've been saying for some years that Australia is just not a great market for cruise ships to use. Distant, expensive, overpriced docking, lack of facilities, limited ports of call that are also expensive and distant and possibly a shrinking market who can no longer afford a cruise. PNG and Indonesia are not really alternatives destinations so there's not many places to go. I suspect more and more cruise lines will follow Virgin and give up on Australia as not being worth the effort.

It’s a great holiday. Support it Govt. 😢. Aussie Bob

I'll sign. I've done 97 cruises with many more booked and no intention of stopping, however I have long said the cruise lines are killing the golden goose and now the Govt is assisting. The ships are getting too big so there are less ports that can handle these behemoths and more and more towns don't want 4000+ descending upon them. IMO about 2000 pax should be max. And I'm not at all interested in stopping at private islands that have nothing but swimming and snorkeling. To be fair P & O have never been more than a budget experience and are not my first choice but I did the first aussie cruise after covid, which was SYD-BNE on Pacific Explorer and I'm booked on the very last aussie P & O on Pacific Adventure next March. I will say the Blue Room does a good 007 Martini. It will be the end of an era.

We are only seeing more and more interest from Americans wanting to cruise in Australia 🇦🇺. Here’s hoping your petition is not only seen/approved, but also listened to! 🙌🏽 Thanks for using your platform to amplify this important info! 👏🏽

You do not mention the greedy cruise lines, Adrian. Start to think cruise lines get all their supplies both tax-free and duty-free and that includes alcohol. For instance on Ovation of the Seas a couple of years ago I paid $94 Australian for a bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. Yet on shore, it is sold for between $15 and $17 Australian and the sellers have paid tax and duty. That is a rip-off. If you take a closer look at videos posted here you will see that many ships are far from full despite what the cruise lines tell you. Virgin gave a very lame excuse for their ship not coming back here next year saying bringing the ship from Europe meant it going through that area of the Red Sea where there have been problems. What rubbish most cruise ships come down the West Coast of Africa and across to Australia. No, they were simply not getting the number of passengers that they wanted. I agree with your comments about the Government, I have out a proposal to the Government for our own Australian-registered and operated ship. Nothing back except an acknowledgement and yet the Minister concerned states that is exactly what they want and I have the e-mail to prove what I say. If you want to see this let me know where you want me to send a copy.

The news that P&O is being absorbed into Carnival, as well as Cunard, Princess and Virgin pulling out of the Australian market makes me worried that Royal will be the next to go...

Would happily sign the petition. Where can we go to sign it???

Cruise ships regularly arrived here in Cairns giving visitors from Syd/Bne/Mel a nice average 10 day cruise to tropical FNQ,especially with P+O.The local economy here also benefitted.Shame that Carnival have made this decision ( acquiring P+O) in favour of profits to be gleaned from the US and European markets.

You have summed it up perfectly. Our greedy, short sighted Government is risking billions of dollars of spending and thousands of jobs. I have shared your video on my Facebook page as we need to be creating a groundswell of support for our wonderful cruise industry before it is too late.

Spot on Adrian. I know we pay decent wages in Australia, but it has become more than obvious that the cruise industry no longer wants to pay the ridiculous docking fees asked by our ports, let’s not forget about the domino effect of no ships, that means transport, hotels, food and beverage refills, immigration authority, baggage handlers the list goes on. Distinct lack of foresight on all governments in Australia. We cancelled our 28day circumnavigation of Australia (which we should now be on) last year, because we worked out we could get more bang for our buck and have 57 cruise days for the same money instead. It will be flight and cruise packages for most Aussies from now on, whether we like it not, we had better get used to it.

Hi Adrian .. There is a yt vid right there about the port fees. Where exactly do the fees go ?? Do they pay for the tug boats to guide the ships , the harbour pilot etc Do container/cargo ship get charged the same rates ? It’s like everything here in Australia, over charged on everything Cheers Rod 👍

Any chance you can create template for us to sign that can get MSC's attention, as now is a really good time and opportunity for them to break into our market. Norwegian would be another good one, if only they'd bring one of their newer ships (even seasonally 😩. Surely there are other port itinerary they can source over to Norfolk Island, Lord Howe, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, etc. Just point me in the direction where to add my name or signature to back you on the letter as would many of the other people who follow your info etc 😊

Notwithstanding that a 30% reduction is significant and that Australian port fees do seem very high by world standards, I feel like there’s more going on than perhaps the cruise lines are talking about. I’m no expert on cruise economics but I find it hard to believe that a $45 per pax charge, in the context of a fare of several thousand dollars, is the reason the lines are reducing their operations here. What am I missing?

Can we sign your petition Adrian? Please provide the weblink (I'm not on Facebook). Also - do you know what the port fees are in Brisbane? Or Cairns and Darwin? Thanks.

I’m with you and the cruise companies on this. Governments are so bloody greedy. They are overlooking the benefits the cruise industry provides to all the suppliers which in turn provides more tax revenue

I’m devo. I’d booked a New Years Eve cruise for 2025 and it’s cancelled. Now we don’t know if Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth will get cruises departing from those locations. As someone with severe anxiety I don’t do well with complicated travel arrangements which has made Sydney a port that is unimaginable to get to (I hate flying, I don’t drive, and trains and buses need to be well known before I feel safe enough to use them). Plus P&O we’re affordable for a solo traveller (paying a further 100% of the fare was just about doable) but the other cruise lines are much more expensive. It’s doubtful I’ll ever be able to enjoy the one form of vacation my anxiety could deal with ever again. Heartbroken barely begins to describe my feelings.

as in most areas...hopeless government , hopeless government ministers...

Its not just the price. We've done many cruises on other lines but we got a decent price on our first...and last...Princess cruise just before Christmas 2023. The food in the dining room was dreadful. You were better off going to the buffet. The only reason we didn't want to do that was we were trying to do our utmost not to catch covid. We wasted our effort as I tested positive on the last day and my husband on disembarkation. The sort of "food" we got served up were peach melba with three miniscule pieces of peach, smaller than mandarin segments floating in sugar water with a teaspoon full of the worst quality water ice (it couldn't be called icecream), beef tenderloin was a tiny knob of beef, two thirds of it being gristle and inedible, the so called gala night lobster was replaced with "prawn balls" which turned out to be two tiny, tasteless fish balls, fish that was like leather...the list goes on. It didn't matter what cut of meat was on the menu, it was the same tasteless, steamed trash that was mostly fat and gristle with one string bean, one baby carrot and two tiny pieces of potato. In the end our waiter told us we could order a jacket potato with each meal, so at least we got something edible and filling from then on. The people on the next table had done many Princess cruises and they had another two booked, which they cancelled after the first week of our cruise because of the poor quality of food on this cruise. They said they wouldn't be cruising with Princess again, but I've heard people saying the same thing about all the cruise lines sailing out of Australia. It seems that they've cut right back in order to maintain standards on other routes, because other people cruising out of the USA are saying they aren't served up this kind of trash. We aren't prepared to risk it though and after nearly 20 cruises, this experience has put us right off cruising.

When you need us to sign, please let us know. There are just so many factors causing issues with the cruising industry here at the moment unfortunately. I did think that the Governments appreciated the cash injection but apparently not.

Wouldn't you think, with the cruising industry as important as it is in this country not only for local but international passengers, that it should be there should be a collective approach to the government from the cruise lines themselves? Surely if Sydney has the most expensive port fees other home ports should be negotiated including Melbourne, Perth, Darwin or perhaps a New Zealand port? It seems a very short-sighted view by both the government and the cruise lines on appraisal of the last couple of weeks has given the Australian/New Zealand market. A great idea to put forward a petition, and also happy to sign.

Are these the reasons why the larger princess ships won’t be back next year? Or didn’t they get the passengers they could get elsewhere (mainly US)?

Good on you for taking action Adrian. This is the same minister who made the Qatar Airways decision.

Wow I didn’t know how much the price was

It’s even worse when you compare your ports to Barcelona, where it costs about $22,000…ONE TENTH of Sydney’s costs…Oof!

It’s a big market in Aust. WTF. AUSSIE Bob ☹️

Yep Prices are through the roof for Celebrity Edge and Ovation .. Just can’t afford them

Garden Island can be repurposed for cruising, bringing a good income stream to the Govt. A no brainer.

Hi Adrian. I wrote a long an detailed email to ACA asking them to pick the story. My email was ignored. Could you please email them as well, perhaps even send them the link to this video. Kindest and warmest regards Lisa from Melbourne ❤

Our country is one of the only countries in the world that have state governments who are able to just freely set these greedy fees and give nothing in return we the cruising community need to rise up let’s face it we are the most isolated country in the world and we need our cruises which in turn support economies of our neighbours

Sad to see cruising impacted so badly. But most governments; local, state and federal, will usually take the cheapest, or most short-sighted option, given a choice. And once the cruise companies leave, they wont come back. This will destroy the economies of several South Pacific islands as well, as cruise passengers inject a mountain of cash into those islands each time they visit.

So that means ive now had 5 P&O cruises cancelled back to back...have a FCC still but its going to cost me an extra $1200 for flights and hotel

I feel the government is hurting the people who want to cruise and enjoy the world of cruise ships This can push customers away and move to other nations and cruise ports

I work in the cruise industry, well, at least I will for another two months anyway. And no, I am not employed by P & O but another brand. I am losing my job because a centralised call centre is more profitable than having multiple around the world. I understand this from a business perspective and can confirm that the decision was not made due to a lack in our performance. While I am heartbroken as are my colleagues, moving jobs overseas due to profitability is nothing new in this country. Personally , I blame the rise in operating costs and the difficulties cruise companied face operating in this region. I don't know whether it is because governments and local businesses want a share of the profits as they are missing out on the tourist dollars being kept locally or if it because they want to get rid of cruising all together. I just know that Australian's are losing yet again. I really hope your petition will be successful but unfortunately it is already too late for some of us.

Sorry Adrian, I couldn't find the petititon?

So where is the CLIA in this ?

The review of a piece of legislation takes months of work by a legislative review team plus crown law review before going to the specialist Act writers then presented to parliament. Not a short or inexpensive process. If it hasn't started already then I suspect it will be granted another 12 month extension or even 2 years if there hasn't been specific budget allocation set aside for this.

Perhaps we should fly to and from NZ. where I believe these costs are lower.

The industry has had *13* years' notice on a regulatory change, after it's extended a further year, and they're still haven't adapted to it? The government is not the one at fault there.

Wiil sign…am keen regular Aussie cruiser