Performance of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
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The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee Performance of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority June 2020 © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-76093-086-8 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra Members Membership during the 46th Parliament Chair Senator Susan McDonald Nats, QLD Deputy Chair Senator Glenn Sterle ALP, WA Members Senator Alex Antic LP, SA Senator Gerard Rennick LP, QLD Senator Janet Rice AG, VIC Senator Murray Watt ALP, QLD Participating Members Senator Slade Brockman LP, WA Senator Carol Brown ALP, TAS Senator Rex Patrick CA, SA Membership during the 45th Parliament Chair Senator Barry O'Sullivan Nats, QLD Deputy Chair Senator Glenn Sterle ALP, WA Members Senator Slade Brockman LP, WA Senator Anthony Chisholm ALP, QLD Senator Malarndirri McCarthy ALP, NT Senator Janet Rice AG, VIC Participating Members Senator Alex Gallacher ALP, SA Senator Rex Patrick CA, SA iii Secretariat Gerry McInally, Committee Secretary Dr Jane Thomson, Committee Secretary Sarah Redden, Principal Research Officer Trish Carling, Senior Research Officer Joshua Wrest, Senior Research Officer Matthew Hughes, Research Officer Michael Fisher, Estimates Officer Jason See, Administration Officer PO Box 6100 Telephone: (02) 6277 3511 Parliament House Fax: (02) 6277 5811 CANBERRA ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] iv Contents Members ............................................................................................................................................. iii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... vii List of Recommendations ................................................................................................................. ix Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1—Introduction and Background ..................................................................................... 1 Referral of inquiry ............................................................................................................................... 1 Conduct of inquiry .............................................................................................................................. 1 Structure of Report ............................................................................................................................... 2 Background .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 6 Notes to references ............................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2—The maritime legislative framework ......................................................................... 9 Background ........................................................................................................................................... 9 The role of AMSA .............................................................................................................................. 10 Application of the National Law .................................................................................................... 11 Purpose of the National Law ............................................................................................................ 11 Compliance and enforcement under the National Law .............................................................. 12 Changes to service delivery ............................................................................................................. 14 National System Statement of Regulatory Approach .................................................................. 15 Marine Orders .................................................................................................................................... 16 Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law (Consequential Amendments) Act 2012 ................................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3—Passenger headcounts as a safety measure ............................................................. 21 Coronial findings .............................................................................................................................. 21 Coroner's comments on public safety ............................................................................................ 23 AMSA's evidence on headcounts ................................................................................................... 24 Suggested changes to headcount requirements ........................................................................... 25 Headcount method and prescription ............................................................................................. 27 AMSA's response to the coronial inquiry ...................................................................................... 28 AMSA's actions since 2014 ................................................................................................................ 29 v Marine Order 504 and headcounts ................................................................................................. 30 Chapter 4—Investigations and scope for prosecution under the National Law ................... 39 Western Australia Police investigation into the death of Mr Mills ........................................... 39 AMSA response to WA Police regarding headcount requirements ......................................... 41 AMSA response to WA Police recommendation regarding crew induction ............................ 43 Regular inspection and issue of direction notice – 2 November 2014 ....................................... 46 Suspension of the certificate of operation – 13 November 2014 ................................................. 47 DoT report to AMSA – 21 December 2014 – 29 May 2015 ........................................................... 54 Investigation into alleged fraudulent certificates ......................................................................... 55 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 57 Findings and fallout between AMSA and DoT ............................................................................ 58 Chapter 5—Coronial inquiries and the performance of AMSA .............................................. 63 Inquest into the death of Ryan Harry Donoghue – Northern Territory Coroner's Court ...... 63 Inquest into the death of Murray Allan Turner, Mason Laurence Carter and Chad Alan Fairley – Coroner's Court of Western Australia ................................................................ 65 Inquest into the death of Mr Daniel Thomas Bradshaw ............................................................. 69 Committee view ................................................................................................................................ 73 Chapter 6—Grandfathering arrangements and other areas for reform .................................. 75 Grandfathering arrangements ......................................................................................................... 75 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 79 Increased red tape, centralisation and complexity ....................................................................... 80 AMSA's regulatory approach .......................................................................................................... 84 Committee view ................................................................................................................................. 87 Labor Senators' Additional Comments ......................................................................................... 91 Appendix 1—Submissions and additional information ........................................................... 95 Appendix 2—Public hearing and witnesses ................................................................................ 97 vi Abbreviations Act Australian Maritime Safety Authority Act 1990 AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Authority CDPP Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions COAG Council of Australian Governments Committee Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee Criminal Code Act Criminal Code Act 1995 DCV Domestic Commercial Vessel DDCF Dolphin Dive Centre Fremantle DoT WA Department of Transport EIS Enforcement and Inspector Support IGA Intergovernmental Agreement on Commercial Vessel Safety Reform IIMS International Institute of Marine Surveying MIAL Maritime Industry Australia Limited MSI Marine Safety Inspector MUA Maritime Union of Australia National Law Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012