I was interested to read the below DCN report that the state maritime safety regulator was ill-equipped to perform its statutory safety role.
We also note in relevant part the article states; ‘’DCN understands the matter was also brought to AMSA’s attention but the authority declined to become involved, stating it was not within its jurisdiction.’’ There is an anomaly in present Australian maritime safety regulation and enforcement. AMSA is the licensing authority for Great barrier Reef Pilotage & Torres Strait of which our Service, Torres Pilots is the largest pilot provider.
It is a self-indictment that AMSA could claim it has no jurisdictional responsibility nor oversight for maritime safety incidents in Australia’s busiest and highest volume container vessel port. It is reasonable to assume this claimed lack of jurisdictional authority would also apply to other ports where pilots are licensed by a state safety authority. That is, it appears AMSA is claiming it has no jurisdictional role in virtually all Australian ports where the risk of a shipping risks incident is higher in the confined waters and high numbers of vessel movements which typically characterise our ports.
This a bureaucratically contrived and unwelcome safety development which appears to have made safety regulation and enforcement ineffective. Our national safety authority is abrogating its safety responsibility basis some spurious claim of a lack of jurisdictional authority and thereby deferring to state safety agencies. At the same time it appears from the below that in Victoria, the responsible state safety agency, STV has said they lack both the ‘’resources and internal expertise’’ to perform this task.
Do we assume that AMSA’s involvement in maritime safety incidents is limited to port state control, that AMSA’s responsibilities are limited to PSC inspections of vessels when they are safely berthed in the port and AMSA only conducts investigations into shipping incidents which occur at sea and in territorial waters but not in the higher risk ports?
Why isn’t the Australian Transport Safety Bureau conducting an investigation into the Melbourne incidents? Why isn’t the ATSB investigating the self-admission by a state maritime safety authority that it has neither the resources nor internal expertise to perform its Regulatory safety role?
It appears from the article that the various federal and state government safety authorities have accepted that maritime safety issues can be remedied by a commercial settlement where financial compensation is paid to the competing pilot service.
This is a serious safety issue and clearly a fundamental flaw in present Australian maritime safety regulation and enforcement.
Perry Sutton,
Managing Director, Torres Pilots Pty Ltd
DCN notes that its previous report on this story was drawn from exclusive coverage by The Age. This letter to DCN was submitted by a reader and does not necessarily reflect DCN‘s views or opinions.
