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Ultimate responsibility for Rena disaster lies with the Government
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| Holes in official accounts of Rena’s seaworthiness |
The Maritime Union
says that the responsibility for the Rena disaster lies with Government and
authorities as much as with individual crew members.
Maritime Union of
New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the arrest today of the master
of the Rena on serious charges should not deflect attention away from the
greater responsibility for the disaster.
He says New Zealand
Government and authorities have created a situation where substandard flag of
convenience shipping has been encouraged and enabled.
“1990s legislation
from the then National Government created the so-called ‘open coast’ policy and
this has meant that unacceptable practices have become the norm in New Zealand
waters – it’s a case of out of sight and out of mind.”
Mr Fleetwood says a
Maritime New Zealand “inspection” of the Rena in Bluff on 28 September 2011
apparently consisted of the inspector asking the Master whether previous
problems had been fixed.
“This is the same
Master that the authorities are now trying to pin the blame on a couple of
weeks later after the disaster.”
“But at the time of
the inspection they obviously were prepared to take the Master at his word that
everything was hunky dory on his ship, despite the fact it had been hauled up
in China and Australia for multiple problems.”
Mr Fleetwood says if
this is the standard approach of Maritime New Zealand to dealing with obviously
problematic vessels, the only surprise in the grounding of the Rena is that it
hadn’t happened earlier.
He says the Union is
very concerned about the welfare of crew members and wanted access to them to
provide independent support.
“Can you imagine the
stress of these seafarers, many with dependent families, who have spent nearly
a week onboard a stricken vessel in mortal fear of their lives, and some only
being taken off by helicopter after a Mayday call when the ship appeared to be
in imminent catastrophe.”
He says it is now
becoming a regular theme that systemic policy and regulation failures are
resulting in serious harm to workers, the community and the environment.
“It is about time
that the elected leaders started copping it when things go wrong rather than
putting a smother over it and trying to shift the blame.”
He says the Union
was repeating its call for all Maritime New Zealand reports on the Rena to be
made public as soon as possible.
“If the authorities
have managed to arrest the captain in such a fast manner, they can start to
make public their own processes for full transparency and accountability to the
New Zealand public.”
Mr Fleetwood says
the Union has been arguing for stronger regulation of shipping for years in New
Zealand waters, but Government’s have not wanted to hear the message.
He says the Union
has had longstanding concerns that Maritime New Zealand regulations and
inspections of flag of convenience vessels were superficial, limited and not
strict enough.
The Union has
compiled a short list of some of the flag of convenience shipping issues that
it has been involved in over the last few years (see end of media release).
Mr Fleetwood says
comment by Transport Minister Steven Joyce that the Maritime Union’s views were
“political” were accurate.
“Mr Joyce is right.
The issue is political. It is political because the John Key led National Government
have been happy to have flag of convenience ships running on the New Zealand
coast as a result of their political decisions.”
“In this case their
political decision to promote and allow flag of convenience shipping on the New
Zealand coast has had real life consequences, which have proved far beyond the
political ability and the practical ability of the Government to deal with.”
“If we allowed
trucks on New Zealand roads that were licensed in Liberia or some other
semi-functioning failed state, and driven by unregulated overseas drivers,
there would be an outcry. Yet that is what we allow on the New Zealand coast
and now we are paying the price.”
Mr Fleetwood says in
addition to its campaigning against Flag of Convenience shipping it had lobbied
the Government last year with a plan to provide a fast response vessel for
offshore oil spills.
The Union approached
the Minister of Energy and Resources, Hon Gerry Brownlee, as well as the
Minister of Transport Hon Steven Joyce and Minister of Environment Hon Nick
Smith, in July 2010 to support the introduction of a ready response vessel for
the maritime sector to cope with oil spills and similar events.
This ready response
vessel would have been aimed at the offshore oil and gas industry but could
easily have been used to quickly respond to oil leaks in the current Rena
disaster.
The Union was told
to send their information into a Ministry of Economic Development review, which
it did.
