Coastal shipping costs too high: Truss

The cost of shipping milk powder from Melbourne to Brisbane is the same as shipping it to Singapore.

And it's cheaper to ship sugar from Thailand to Australia than to ship Australian sugar around our coastline.

Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss cited the examples when introducing legislation to parliament on Thursday, which he said would revitalise Australia's ailing coastal shipping industry.

Mr Truss said the fleet of major Australian registered ships with coastal licences had halved from 30 to 15 between 2006 and 2014.

"Without change, shipping will not be able to deliver the competitive and efficient services that Australian businesses desperately need," he said.

The main change abolishes the existing tiered licensing system, replacing it with a single coastal shipping permit available to Australian and foreign registered ships.

For the first time, the system will be extended to include ships carrying petroleum products from offshore facilities to the mainland.

Mr Truss said his bill ensured that foreign ships operating predominantly in Australia will be subject to Australian workplace relations arrangements.

Existing on-board workplace arrangements will apply to foreign ships operating in coastal waters for less than 183 days in a 12 month permit period.