Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Protection of the Sea (Powers of Intervention) Amendment Bill 2006 amends the Protection of the Sea (Powers of Intervention) Act 1981—the intervention act. This is the Australian legislation giving effect to the provisions of the International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties, 1969. The intervention act enables the Australian government to intervene in the event of any threat of pollution from a ship in Australian waters or on the high seas.

The proposed amendments demonstrate the government’s proactive approach to ensuring that we have policies and frameworks to support safe shipping practices which are sensitive to our pristine environment. The overall standard of shipping in Australian waters is steadily improving and, thankfully, significant incidents are rare and becoming less frequent. Australia to date has avoided a major pollution problem.

Nevertheless, we need to be mindful that there is always the risk of an event occurring. The overseas examples show that even a single incident can have major harmful consequences. While international compensation regimes for damages are generally highly effective, on occasions the cost of responding to a major incident can exceed the available liability and compensation limits. Governments and affected citizens may have to bear the costs of a major incident, which may be hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is clear that governments need proper powers of intervention to prevent, mitigate or eliminate the dangers of a major pollution incident. Without these powers we may not be able to take effective actions to counter such a threat, especially when a coordinated response involving many different players is required.

While the intervention act currently provides the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) with wide general powers, the Australian Transport Council (ATC), involving ministers from the Australian, state and Northern Territory governments, agreed in November 2005 to a national approach to maritime emergency response that recognised the need to strengthen the intervention act to enable an effective and coordinated response in a maritime situation involving a serious threat of pollution.

The amendments proposed in this bill will clarify the scope of the government’s powers, updating and clarifying the provisions of the intervention act to address matters that have arisen since its enactment some 25 years ago.

The most important clarification is in relation to AMSA’s powers of intervention in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in coastal seas and on the ‘high seas’. The contemporary concepts in relation to maritime zones were introduced by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), after the act was enacted in 1981.

This bill will update the act to the current international approach, separately identifying the EEZ and enabling earlier intervention within it to prevent a casualty from becoming a major pollution threat.

The bill implements the Australian Transport Council agreement on emergency response arrangements for AMSA to be the single national decision maker with responsibility for intervention in incidents involving threats of significant pollution, covering all ship types in all waters. It also clarifies AMSA’s powers of direction to persons whose cooperation would be vital to preventing and mitigating pollution.

The bill proposes legal immunity for all persons acting under the direction of AMSA, while ensuring consistency with the international conventions. The bill also provides for compensation on just terms for any requisition of property by the authority and sets new penalty levels to deter a person from breaching a direction issued in the national interest.

The measures in the bill have no budgetary implications. I present the explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Mr Murphy) adjourned.

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