By Tracey Ferrier
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has flagged an overhaul of measures to protect the Great Barrier Reef from environmental disasters.
Mr Rudd says he's open to the idea of putting more pilots on cargo ships travelling near the World Heritage-listed reef. He says he'll also look at whether there's a case to tighten laws to better protect an asset of global importance.
Mr Rudd today flew over a coal carrier that's leaked oil and is stuck on a shoal after running off course, into a restricted part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off Rockhampton. He said it was outrageous that a ship could be so far off course in a protected area, and the Government was open to ideas to better protect the reef.
Existing penalties allowed for fines of up to $5.5 million in such circumstances, and jail time of up to three years if a captain was found to be negligent, he said.
"My view is that the law must be fully and absolutely applied in these circumstances. Australians take the Great Barrier Reef very, very seriously," he said.
Mr Rudd said the Government would be "looking at the laws for the future" as a priority, and that he was also open to the idea of putting more pilots on large cargo vessels plying reef waters.
"Let's see what the experts have to advise," he said.
Maritime authorities say they've stemmed the oil leak but still fear the badly-damaged Shen Neng 1 could break up if the weather turns bad.
Equipment is being flown to the area so teams can begin pumping about 950 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 100 tonnes of diesel oil off the vessel and onto another ship as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Oil has already been transferred within the ship from damaged tanks into secure ones.
Authorities are still considering whether to try to offload 65,000 tonnes of coal, Premier Anna Bligh said.
"If it is possible to refloat the ship with the coal on board, that's how it will be managed. But the calculations are still being undertaken by the salvage team," she said.
Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) general manager Patrick Quirk said everything was being done to ensure the ship was salvaged intact, but there were no guarantees. He said the Shen Neng 1 had intended to use the Capricorn Channel to travel from coastal waters off Gladstone out into the Coral Sea, and should have made it safely.
There was nothing illegal about its intended route, although it was not considered a preferred route. But the vessel strayed off course and ended up grounded in a restricted part of the marine park.
"Navigating a ship through these waters is not rocket science," Mr Quirk said.
"Any competent crew should be able to do that and we were just totally gobsmacked on Saturday night to find where she had gone aground."
The grounding happened outside the coverage area of a vessel tracking system, which would have alerted authorities about the ship straying off course, Mr Quirk said.
Asked if he'd support an expansion of the tracking system he said: "There'll be a number of recommendations to Government and we'll be very forceful in upping our risk management of this area".
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has called for a royal commission into the grounding, saying there's emerging evidence of ships laden with toxic cargos taking short cuts through reef areas.
The conservation group WWF said the lack of safeguards was akin to "playing Russian roulette" with one of the world's most treasured natural assets.
News.com.au
