LEFT AT SEA
No justice for fishos run over in Darwin Harbour thanks to legal loophole
IN May 2016, four Territory fishos were run over by a 45m barge in Darwin Harbour.
To this day, thanks to legislation botched by the nation’s maritime regulatory body, the Australian Marine Safety Authority (AMSA), no one has been held accountable.
AMSA’s bungled legislation meant anyone who collided with another vessel in Australian waters could not be prosecuted.
It is understood that investigations into the collision involving the four Territory fishos – Dale Marshall, Jaron Early, Michael Mizen and Damien Pell – uncovered the legal loophole.
That botched legislation, and a pattern of alleged negligence from AMSA, is under the scrutiny of the Australian Government.
Last week, a Senate committee conducting an inquiry into the performance of AMSA excoriated the statutory body as incompetent, feckless and utterly incapable of regulating Australian waters and marine operators.
“You haven’t even got to first base as a safety body,” Senator Glenn Sterle told the senate estimates committee.
“People are dying and it looks to me like no one is being held accountable.”
The Territory fishos were left for dead when, a few clicks off of Charles Pt, a barge cleaved through their eightmetre fibreglass boat.
Any compensation the fishos would have been entitled to was railroaded when AMSA drew up the Navigation Act 2012. Last Thursday, under question at the senate inquiry, AMSA and its lawyers conceded the Navigation Act – the legislative document enshrining Australia’s sea laws – was a defunct document.
In response to questions from NT News, AMSA confirmed there were problems with the Navigation Act 2012.
“The issue identified … was that neither Act included a definitional provision that made clear that those references included Marine Orders as well as ‘ ordinary’ regulations,” an AMSA spokesman said.
Subsequently, under Australian maritime law, if a ship collided with another and was found at fault, there was no legal grounds for punishment from July 1, 2013 until December 2018, when AMSA rushed to amend the legislation.
“They’ve been asleep at the wheel,” a source close to the investigation said.
Almost all marine ordinance during that time, from seafarers’ actions to operators’ preparation of vessels, were unlawful. During the inquiry, senators attempted to come to grips with AMSA’s inability to investigate cases like the incident in Darwin Harbour. “The public looking at this thing would say, ‘I don’t want to get on a boat’ – it would upset anyone’s confidence in the system,” said Senator Sterle.
The collision still haunts those who were on the boat when the barge hit.
“Now we feel like even (justice) has been taken away from us because of the incompetence within AMSA,” Mr Marshall said.
“I was talking to the specialist. Crying and crying. I’ve got four kids, and the whole mortality thing – I still haven’t got my head around it.”
Mr Early said his life had changed since the hit.
“Some people never recover from that, and I’m not sure if you ever quite can,” he said.
With AMSA now under heavy scrutiny, the four men are only now understanding what they are up against.
“We will be looking at your marine orders, your legislation, your operation. Everything you do or don’t do. And we will fix this,” Senator Sterle told AMSA officials.
“The public looking at this thing would say, ‘I don’t want to get on a boat’ – it would upset anyone’s confidence in the system” SENATOR GLENN STERLE