$5 Million paid from Waterfront Trust Fund

More than $5 million has been paid from the Stevedoring Industry Reform Small Business Compensation Fund, established by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to 85 businesses affected by the waterfront dispute in 1998.

"The compensation has been paid to the businesses which suffered loss and damage as a result of the waterfront dispute", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.

"The ACCC intervened in the waterfront dispute and established the Compensation Fund to compensate businesses whose cargoes were held up by boycott conduct at a number of Australian and overseas ports.

"Eighty-five businesses have so far received compensation from the fund for the economic loss they incurred during the dispute. This includes numerous small businesses, as well as a number of exporters who had cargo on the Columbus Canada, which was stranded off the Los Angeles coast for a number of weeks during the dispute due to boycott activity in the US.

"Compensation of $5 million to these businesses is a very positive outcome because they would otherwise have suffered significant financial harm due to factors totally outside their control. Many of those affected were small businesses which would have been unable to take their own private legal action".