Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin, I acknowledge the member for Spence, a former seafarer, given that we are addressing the Maritime Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. The coalition, as does the government, takes Australia's international obligations to protect the marine environment from pollution from ships seriously. The bill aligns Australia's domestic legislation with Australia's international obligations that will support effective and consistent global regulations to protect the marine environment regarding pollution from ships. The International Maritime Organization progressively improves maritime environment pollution standards for ships, and this bill aligns Australia with recent changes to international regulations.

The bill aims to do three things. Firstly, the bill introduces a control for discharges of residues of noxious liquid substances known as persistent floaters—substances like certain grades of vegetable oil or paraffin-like substances that can form surface slicks. Ships will be required to meet new cargo tank cleaning, pre-wash and discharge procedures for persistent floaters. The new regulation applies to northern European waters and comes into effect on 1 January 2023. It specifically applies to north-west European waters, the Baltic Sea, western European waters and the Norwegian Sea.

Secondly, the bill bans the use of heavy fuel oils, or HFOs, by ships in Arctic waters from 1 July 2024. A similar plan already is in place for the Antarctic. The ban aims to reduce environmental impacts on sensitive Arctic environments caused by higher emissions of harmful air pollutants from ships burning HFO. The heavy fuel oil ban also reduces the risk of oil spills.

Thirdly, the bill extends controls on ships' harmful antifouling systems to include the chemical biocide cybutryne from 1 January 2023. This chemical is chronically toxic for marine organisms. According to the APVMA, the use of cybutryne as an antifouling agent has never been registered or approved for use by ships in Australia.

This bill brings Australia's regulations in line with the international standards setting body, the International Maritime Organization, which seeks to improve marine environment pollution standards via the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 and the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships 2001. While Australian ships are subject to Australian legislation wherever they are in the world, this legislation is not expected to have any significant impacts on the Australian maritime industry. The Australian shipping industry has been consulted on the legislation and is supportive of the alignment of regulations with the international body.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has also considered the amendments to MARPOL relating to the cargo residues and tank washing of persistent floating products, to the prohibition on the use and carriage of HFO in Arctic waters and to the HAFS convention relating to the controls of cybutryne. The committee supported the amendments and agreed that binding treaty action could be taken. As such, the opposition will be supporting this bill.

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