Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will say, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, that it will be belittled and it will be politicised. They cannot help themselves on that side of the chamber. They see every opportunity to have a go, because there is a Queensland election on. As I was saying before that, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, the effect of these conventions is that Australia cannot hamper or impair the right of passage of foreign vessels through its territorial waters. Just to clarify a few of those claims or questions from Senator Brown, under international maritime conventions, AMSA—the Australian Maritime Safety Authority—has the ability to inspect and detain foreign flagged ships visiting Australian ports if they are found to have major safety or environmental deficiencies and are therefore unseaworthy or substandard. AMSA undertakes risk based assessment of the 3,000-odd ships entering Australian ports annually. There are no powers in Commonwealth transport legislation that would allow AMSA to prevent a foreign vessel departing an Australian port in rough weather. Through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, that is to clarify some of Senator Brown’s remarks.

It is very important to Australia’s economy and to the reputation of its maritime industry that we rely heavily on the safe and secure passage of billions of dollars of imports and exports in and out of this country. As we know, and I will just reiterate a few points, on Wednesday, 11 March at approximately 3.15 am, AMSA received a report from the Brisbane harbour control that a ship reported it had lost 31 containers in rough seas eight nautical miles east of Moreton Island. It was a 185-metre container ship called the Pacific Adventurer. It suffered a rupture to its fuel tanks as a result of the containers falling overboard. As I said earlier, by 8.30 am, Maritime Safety Queensland had established an incident response centre and had assumed control of the response activity. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority issued a broadcast alert for shipping in the area. The national plan for combating oil pollution was put into effect, and the resources were made available to the Queensland government.

Just briefly, the national plan is an integrated, cooperative framework between the federal, state and territory governments and includes the oil, chemical, shipping and exploration industries. It has proven its effectiveness over the last 30 years, having been established in 1973. The national plan covers all aspects of marine pollution response, which includes response planning, stockpiling response equipment at strategic locations around Australia’s coast, training teams of response personnel, coordinating national training programs and conducting regular simulated pollution exercises involving all parties to the national plan. I would go back to Senator Brown’s comments. I think the wording was, and correct me if I am wrong, that there were ‘thousands of volunteers waiting’. There was also an article in today’s Courier-Mail which said that Queensland officials were not seeking thousands of volunteers. With the greatest of respect, they wanted to leave it up to the professionals. I just think that has to be made clear.

Australia’s response to marine pollution is characterised by a cooperative approach between federal agencies, state and territory agencies and industry, with well-developed consultative mechanisms on risk management and mitigation strategies in place. In the current situation, the ship’s crew first advised through AMSA that some 20 to 30 tonnes of heavy fuel was lost. For those who do not appreciate metric volumes and tonnes—though I certainly know what 20 to 30 tonnes means—to make it quite simple, it is just over a semitrailer load of fuel. It is even less than that which would be carted by a B-double.

It does not matter if it is only a cupful. That is probably a throwaway line, but no spill is any good at all—let us make that very clear. But 20 to 30 tonnes, if I can put that into context, is one tri-axle barrel going down the road behind a prime mover. It is significant, but you would not think it would cause a significant threat to the coastline. But what the Queensland officials found out a little bit later was that it was about 218 tonnes. Senator Brown said 250 tonnes, but whether it was 250 tonnes or 218 tonnes does not matter: that is a hell of a lot of tonnes of fuel to be lost—10 times more than what was reported. The Queensland government’s response to the serious oil spill affecting the eastern coastline of Moreton Island and ocean beaches to the north of Moreton Island has been carried out professionally and rapidly—forget the ranting that may follow. I hope it does not; I hope this is not politicised; I hope that this is not used by the opposition as an opportunity to rant, because there is an election coming up in Queensland on Saturday. But I will find out as I listen to the rest of the contributions from those opposite.

From the start, the Queensland government took the most responsible course of action in response to such an event and ensured that the clean-up was under the control and direction of those most skilled in dealing with such emergencies. That was the responsible course of action and that was what was done. As well, the Queensland government immediately deployed the resources of all its relevant agencies to deal with the oil spill as a whole-of-government effort. The work is proceeding rapidly under the direction of the relevant experts. Detailed work has already commenced on investigating the events leading up to and contributing to the cause of the spillage. Already, substantial areas of the affected coastline have been cleaned up—fortunately. The Queensland government and its agencies did not cause the spillage but they have responded magnificently with the necessary clean-up operation. They, the volunteers and the experts concerned, deserve our greatest congratulations for their efforts.

It is quite disgraceful for members of parliament to pull stunts like this to try and get the caption or the highlight of the day in the Senate. The Senate’s time could be spent investigating other issues. We know that there is certainly quite a bit of legislation that we have to work through.