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CONTENTS
Ballast Water Research and Development Funding Levy
Collection Bill 1997
Date Introduced: 24 September 1997
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Primary Industries and Energy
Commencement: 1 July 1998
To:
- set out the criteria for and details of the impositon of a levy
on certain ships entering Australian ports in order to provide
funds for the Strategic Ballast Research and Development Program,
and
- establish the Strategic Ballast Water Research and Development
Fund.
A ship embarking on a voyage must carry sufficient extra
distributed weight over and above its own weight to maintain
stability and limit stresses to the hull, immerse the hull and
propellers sufficiently to maintain propulsion, and provide
effective steering.When sufficient cargo is not available, the
extra weight is made up by ballast.Until the 1870s ballast was
stones, pig iron or any cheap or convenient high density
material.Iron and steel ships have tanks constructed within the
hull, and filling them with seawater by means of power driven pumps
provides an economic and quick method of adding ballast.It remains
the standard method of ballasting ships today.
Australia, by the nature of its export trade in bulk cargoes
(coal, iron ore, grains, woodchips), and minimal imports of bulk
cargoes, has a large number of ships arriving at its ports in
ballast.Around 121 million tonnes of ballast water from 5100
vessels are discharged in Australian waters each year.At least 40
Australian ports receive ships that discharge ballast water, and
five of these (Newcastle, NSW, Port Hedland and Dampier in Western
Australia, and Hay Point and Gladstone in Queensland) receive more
than 50% of the ballast water discharged in Australian waters each
year.Most is carried by bulk carriers, and approximately 70%
originates in Asian ports.Half comes from Japan, taken on board
from more than 42 Japanese ports.(1) A further 34 million tonnes of
ballast water are transferred between Australian ports by ships
operating in the coastal trade.
Ships' ballast water has the potential to spread unwanted
aquatic organisms.At least 15 exotic marine species are thought to
have arrived in Australia in ballast water.Some of these are having
a major adverse effect on Australia's marine environment and pose a
significant threat to seafood production, as well as human
health.Of notable concern are:
- Brown kelp (Undaria pinnatifida) from Japan which was
discovered in 1989 and is spreading along the eastern coast of
Tasmania.The kelp attaches to rocks that are abalone feeding sites,
and to the racks and lines of oyster and mussel farms, covering the
shellfish.(2) It has recently been discovered in Victoria's Port
Phillip Bay:(3)
- North Pacific Seastar (Asterias amurensis) which has
been present in Tasmania's Derwent Estuary since the 1980s and has
spread along about 200 km of Tasmanian coastline, further putting
at risk Tasmania's shellfish industry,(4) and
- Giant sea worm (Sabella spallanzanii) which has been
found in both Port Phillip Bay, where it has become a major threat
to the scallop industry, and in Cockburn Sound in Western
Australia.(5)
The introduction of toxic planktonic algae (in a group called
dinoflagellates) in ballast water is of major concern.They cause
"red tides" which kill fish and can lead to human poisoning and
fatalities by contaminating seafood.A new species of toxic red
algae was reported from Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River in
November 1996.(6) As well as these ballast water introductions,
barnacles, worms and seaweeds have been transported to Australia on
ships' hulls.The State of the Marine Environment Report
(SOMER) identified the introduction of exotic marine organisms as
one of the top concerns for marine and coastal habitats.It stressed
that once the organisms arrive in Australian waters, it will be
impossible to eradicate them.(7)
Management of ballast water in Australia is the responsibility
of the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS).In 1990
Australia was the first country to introduce guidelines for ballast
water management which apply to ships entering Australia from
overseas ports.(8) They include:
- measures at the ballasting port (wherever possible, the ballast
water taken on is free of organisms; ballasting in shallow water is
avoided; and water and bottom sediment in the area are certified
free from toxic organisms);
- measures en-route (in-hold water treatment or exchanging the
ballast water loaded in port with mid-ocean water to reduce the
number of shallow water species present);
- measures on arrival, including non-discharge of ballast,
on-shore ballast water treatment (subject to AQIS approval), or
discharge of sediment into approved areas.
Ships' masters may use one or a combination of these measures,
or the shipping company may enter into a compliance agreement with
AQIS.Australia currently conducts a ballast water sampling program
and monitors compliance with the guidelines.According to AQIS, 80%
of ships now entering Australian waters comply with the
guidelines.(9)
Additionally, the shipping industry and the states have joined
AQIS in developing improved methods to minimise the spread of
marine organisms from infected areas of Australia to non-infected
ports and adjacent waterways.A discussion paper on Australian
Coastal Ballast Water Guidelines has been published by
AQIS.
The transfer of unwanted aquatic species and organisms is
recognised internationally as an important global issue.Of current
concern is the voracious jellyfish, Mnemiopsis leidyi,
which is causing havoc in the Black Sea and which is thought to
have come from the bilge water of a North American ship in
1982,(10) and the Zebra Mussel which entered the Great Lakes of
North America around 1988.By 1993 the mussel had invaded almost 50%
of all waterways in the USA, killing off native species and
clogging the inlet pipes of ships and shore power plants.The cost
of controlling (not eradicating) this mussel is estimated to be $US
1 billion a year.(11) In 1991 the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) adopted International Guidelines for
Preventing the Introduction of Unwanted Aquatic Organisms and
Pathogens via Ships Ballast Water and Sediment Discharges
which incorporate the Australian guidelines.Australia has also been
active within the IMO Marine Environment Pollution Committee which
is working to develop a new annex to the MARPOL Convention (the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships) specifically for ballast water.
The Australian ballast water guidelines have been complemented
by a number of recent initiatives, including the adoption in 1995
of a Ballast Water Management Strategy and the establishment of the
Australian Ballast Water Management Advisory Council whose members
are drawn from Federal and State government, industry, research and
environmental agencies, and whose task is to oversee the
administration of the Strategy.The Council has implemented a
Strategic Ballast Water Research and Development Program, and set
up a Research Advisory Group to co-ordinate and manage research
into the scientific and technical problems associated with ballast
water management.Some areas of current research interest include
the treatment of ballast water with waste heat generated by the
ship's engine, the development of a rapid diagnostic test for the
identification of toxic dinoflagellates, and long-term biological
control of exotic marine organisms already in Australia's coastal
waters.
In March 1997 the Prime Minister, Hon John Howard announced
that, as part of the Government's Coasts and Clean Seas Initiative,
$1 million would be allocated from the National Heritage Trust to
fund the Strategic Ballast Water Research and Development Program
for the 1997/98 financial year.The purpose of this legislation is
the raise an additional $2 million to fund ongoing research.A
charge of $210 for bulk carriers and $140 for all other ships with
a length of 50 metres or longer, including tankers, will be levied
on all vessels entering Australian waters from 1 July 1998.Once the
$2 million has been raised, the levy will be ceased.(12) The levy
is fully supported by the shipping industry and the amount is
expected to have a relatively low impact on the industry compared
with costs of up to $20,000 per day for a ship lying idle in
port.(13)
The Levy
Clause 6 provides that levy is payable in
respect of a ship, other than an exempt ship.'Ship' is defined very
widely to mean a vessel of any kind that is used in navigation,
other than a vessel that is ordinarily propelled by oars.
An exempt ship is one which is declared by regulation to be an
exempt ship.
Digest Comment: The Minister's Second Reading speech in
respect of the Ballast Water Research and Development Funding
Levy Bill 1997 and the Explanatory Memorandum to this Bill
both provide that the levy will only apply to ships which are at
least 50 metres long.
That qualification is not set out in the Bill.Presumably ships
of less than 50 metres in length will be declared as exempt ships
by the regulations.
The ship's owner, its master and any agent or consignee of the
ship who has paid, or is liable to pay, any charge on account of
the ship are jointly and separately liable for pay the levy in
respect of the ship.
Clause 7 sets out the frequency with which the
levy is payable.The overriding provision is that levy is payable,
in respect of a ship, no more than once in any quarter.
An agent or consignee of a ship who has paid an amount of levy
in respect of the ship may retain the amount of the levy paid from
any money received on account of the ship or belonging to its owner
(clause 10).
The Fund
Clause 11 establishes the Strategic Ballast
Water Research and Development Fund.
Miscellaneous
Clause 15 provides that the Act ceases
operation on a date to be fixed by proclamation.
Digest Comment: The Minister's Second Reading speech in
respect of the Ballast Water Research and Development Funding
Levy Bill 1997 states that the levy will operate for a period
of 2 years, ceasing once an amount of $2 million has been
collected.The Explanatory Memorandum to this Bill reinforces this
by stating that the levy will be ceased by proclamation once the $2
million has been raised.
The Department of Primary Industries and Energy has advised that
an amount of approximately $1 million is spent on ballast water
research each year.The $1 million appropriated from the National
Heritage Trust combined with the $2 million raised by this levy
will fund research until 30 June 2000.Funding arrangements for
research beyond that date are presently being considered.
The Department has also commented that any continuation of the
levy beyond the two year period would require renegotiation of the
agreement with the industry.
As mentioned in the background to this Digest, the potential
problems created by ballast water appear to be significant.The
amount of the levy, $210 or $140 per quarter, appearsquite small
when compared to the amount charged by vessel owners for carriage
of cargo or the amount paid by vessel owners in port fees.In this
regard, it may be open for environmentalists to argue that
ship-owners are getting off lightly in that they are only having to
pay a relatively small amount for research into a potentially
significant problem caused directly by them.
- Megan Bonny, 'Ballast water: the scourge of the oceans',
Search, v.25(3), April 1994: 72.
- ibid: 73.
- 'Discovery of Japanese kelp raises fears of Port Phillip
invasion', The Age, 17 August 1996: A5.
- Richard McLoughlin & Ronald Thresher, 'The North Pacific
Seastar: Australian most damaging marine pest?', Search,
v.25(3), April 1994: 69-70.
- Megan Bonny, 'Preventing the invasion of marine immigrants",
Search, v.26(3), April 1995: 81.
- 'Red tide of toxic algae threatens harbour's fish', Sydney
Morning Herald, 14 December 1996: 5.
- The State of the Marine Environment Report for
Australia, compiled by Leon P. Zann, Great Barrier Reef Marine
Park Authority, Townsville, 1995: 64-5.
- Voluntary Controls on the Discharge of Ballast Water and
Sediment from Entering Australia from Overseas, AQIS, Notice
(General Quarantine) 90/1. Updated in July 1992 as Notice
92/2.
- 'Ballast water goes under microscope', Australian
Environment Review, v.11(4), May 1996: 8.
- 'Scientists all at sea on how to handle voracious jellyfish',
Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 1997: 8.
- Russell Reichelt & John Chapman, 'Marine organisms in
ballast water: scientific aspects and operational methods for
minimising them', Maritime Studies, no.86, Jan./Feb. 1996:
9.
- Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives,
Hansard, 24 September 1997: P8194.
- Explanatory memorandum, Ballast Water Research and Development
Funding Levy Bill 1997: 5.
Rosemary Bell (Background)
Lee Jones (Main Provisions)
13 October 1997
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1997
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Last updated: 13 October 1997
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