Reporting Ship Sourced Pollution
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Prevention of Pollution from Ships
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Chair's Foreword
On behalf of the National Plan Management Committee, I have much pleasure in presenting the Annual Report of activities of the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances.
I am very pleased to be able to report that the National Plan is operating in a low incident environment both within Australia and also worldwide. Australia’s low incident environment can be largely attributed to the rigorous Port State Control inspections undertaken by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) ensuring that only quality ships arrive in Australia.
Our greatest challenge in a low incident environment is to ensure that we don’t become complacent. The National Plan continues to be a proactive means of ensuring that our preparedness and readiness to respond to a maritime incident is not compromised. The National Plan continues to prepare, to ensure that our equipment stockpiles are modern and up-to-date and to train.
On 15 September 2004 Exercise ‘James Cook’ was conducted based on a scenario involving an oil spill in Botany Bay, NSW. The exercise was our 6th national biennial oil spill response exercise. The primary focus was to test the overall arrangements for the National Plan for responding effectively to a major marine oil spill in NSW. The Exercise produced a number of important recommendations requiring actions not only by NSW and the National Plan Operations Group, but also for the other States and Northern Territory. Through such exercises, we continue to learn, to practice and to improve our arrangements.
The Inter-Governmental Agreement between Federal, State and Northern Territory Governments formalising the national approach to oil and chemical spill preparedness and response and cooperation, is now well established and operating efficiently and effectively, and its ongoing operation has been confirmed by Ministers.
The National Plan Management Committee, in which Federal, State and Northern Territory authorities, oil and chemical industries and ports are represented, continued to meet its responsibilities and obligations through the provision of advice to the Australian Transport Council on strategic and policy direction and funding arrangements for the National Plan.
During 2004-2005, there were no major ship-sourced marine pollution incidents in Australian waters. However, the National Plan was called upon to respond to 172 minor spill incidents, an increase of almost 50 percent from 2003-2004.
Finally, on a personal note, this will be my last report as Chair of the National Plan Management Committee. After six years as the Committee’s inaugural Chair, I leave a well-structured, national response arrangement capable of responding quickly and effectively to ship sourced oil and chemical spills. This I believe is testament to the National Plan’s cooperative arrangements that operate across government and industry, and to the key coordination role played by AMSA. I extend my gratitude to all those people who have contributed to attaining this outcome.
Jim Starkey
Chairman
National Plan Management Committee
Updated: May 2006