Fed: Grounded carrier a ticking time bomb: Brown

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2010
Fed: Grounded carrier a ticking time bomb: Brown

By Steve Gray

BRISBANE, April 6 AAP - Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has called for a royal commission
into the grounding of a coal ship inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Senator Brown says evidence is emerging that ships laden with toxic cargoes have been
taking shortcuts through restricted reef areas for a long time, posing grave threats to
the pristine environment.

"I call on Prime Minister (Kevin) Rudd to institute an immediate royal commission,"

he told reporters in Brisbane.

Senator Brown said the Senate would reconvene in May, and if the government had not
instituted a royal commission by then, he would move to establish one.

It must look at the grounding of the Shen Neng 1 in a restricted area of the marine
park, but must also take a broader focus, he said.

Senator Brown said existing shipping controls were clearly ineffectual, and the reef
faced an escalating threat as Queensland's coal and liquid natural gas industries crank
up.

The Greens leader said the Queensland and Australian governments had had decades to
put safeguards in place, yet had failed to do so.

"We don't have laws which require pilots, which require tracking," he said.

"Trawlers have got to have them, but not these bulk carriers."

He added: "The coal industry is running government policy here."

Senator Brown said the Shen Neng 1, loaded with coal and heavy fuel oil, was a ticking
time bomb sitting on a World Heritage reef which was now at the mercy of the weather.

Maritime authorities have stabilised the ship and all but stopped the oil leak, but
say the ship still poses a threat, especially if the weather turns bad.

"The one thing that's favouring the Great Barrier Reef at the moment is the weather,
and that's not a consequence of the corporations that are involved here," Senator Brown
said.

"We could have a cyclone in the region. We could have still see stormy weather before
this ship is removed.

"We've got all fingers and toes crossed that the ship can be taken off the reef without
spilling its cargo of either oil or of coal.

"Are we to run the reef on good luck, on the provision of good weather, when tragedies
like this occur?

Senator Brown made reference to case of former Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu, recently
jailed for 10 years in China after admitting to taking bribes.

"What's (China's) President Hu say about a Chinese citizen who comes to Australia on
business and is threatening to take the Great Barrier Reef?

"It's time the Australian government made much stronger moves to protect this World
Heritage environment."

AAP stg/tnf/jl

KEYWORD: CARRIER BROWN 2ND UPDATE

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