Maritime Union concerned with reduction in ship inspections

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and is con­cerned about the reduc­tion in mon­it­or­ing of inter­na­tion­al ship­ping by Mari­time New Zea­l­and, the Gov­ern­ment agency respons­ible for ensur­ing a “safe, secure and clean” mari­time envir­on­ment.

Less than half of “Pri­or­ity 1” ves­sels (49%) com­ing into New Zea­l­and were inspec­ted in the 2014/2015 year, accord­ing to Mari­time New Zeal­and’s annu­al report.

That is well beneath the tar­get of 70% inspec­tions for the year, and the 82% of inspec­tions achieved in the 2013/2014 year.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and nation­al sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says the mon­it­or­ing and invest­ig­a­tion of com­pli­ance by inter­na­tion­al ship­ping was a key role of the agency.

While the rol­lout of the new Mari­time Oper­at­or Safety Sys­tem (MOSS) was an under­stand­able focus for resources, as out­lined in the report, this could not get in the way of the basic respons­ib­il­it­ies of the agency.

If there was a resourcing prob­lem, then that needed to be dealt with by appro­pri­ate resourcing by the Gov­ern­ment, not simply set aside, he says.

Accord­ing to Mari­time New Zea­l­and, a great­er emphas­is is being placed on “enga­ging” with inter­na­tion­al part­ners to lift the qual­ity of ship­ping and reduce the level of risk before ships enter New Zea­l­and waters.

Mr Fleet­wood says the Mari­time Uni­on did not agree with this emphas­is.

While the Uni­on sup­por­ted work­ing with inter­na­tion­al part­ners and strength­en­ing inter­na­tion­al mari­time agree­ments, the abil­ity of New Zea­l­and to engage with “Flag of Con­veni­ence” ship­ping regis­tries such as Liber­ia or Panama was lim­ited or pos­sibly non-exist­ent in a prac­tic­al sense.

Strin­gent inspec­tions as part of Port State Con­trol should remain the bed­rock of mari­time com­pli­ance, he says.

The dereg­u­lated nature of the glob­al ship­ping industry meant a stick was required as well as car­rots to ensure stand­ards were main­tained.

Mr Fleet­wood says the les­sons of light handed reg­u­la­tion in issues of safety and com­pli­ance in recent New Zea­l­and indus­tri­al his­tory could be summed up by the Pike River Mine dis­aster and the Rena ground­ing.

In addi­tion, the prob­lems in the fish­ing industry over many years went back to New Zea­l­and allow­ing industry to reg­u­late itself with dis­astrous res­ults as the low­est com­mon denom­in­at­or set the stand­ard of “glob­al worst prac­tice.”

Mr Fleet­wood says there are fre­quent and reg­u­lar issues with inter­na­tion­al ship­ping in New Zea­l­and waters, and the Uni­on togeth­er with the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF), often had to step in to resolve issues on behalf of for­eign crews.

The Mari­time Uni­on would be seek­ing assur­ances that inspec­tions of ves­sels by Mari­time New Zea­l­and would be a top pri­or­ity.