The Federal shipping regulator has slapped an Indian-owned Liberian-chartered fuel tanker, which entered Australia to supply Viva Energy, with a six month ban after finding sailors were being denied medical care and sufficient drinking water or food.
The Australian Maritime and Shipping Authority hit AG Neptune with the ban after sailors on-board sounded warnings of their treatment after the ship was placed under arrest in the Queensland port of Gladstone.
The AG Neptune was sent to Gladstone after urgent court action after 62,000 tonnes of diesel fuel bound for Newcastle were allegedly contaminated with seawater.
The fuel, worth $74.7m, has been subject to dispute which has played out in the Federal Court of Australia between Viva and the ships’ owners.
The 244-metre ship was arrested in May off the coast of Newcastle by Australian Border Force Officers after Viva attempted to stop it leaving.
The contamination of the fuel, which was loaded in Taiwan in March, was only discovered after it berthed in Newcastle.
The Federal Court ordered the ship be sent to Gladstone to offload its fuel, which was to be reprocessed and the seawater removed.
Viva and the ship owners are now duelling over how the contamination happened, but the ship owners’ troubles have since worsened after AMSA inspectors swooped on it after it berthed on allegations workers on-board had been mistreated.
AMSA inspected the ship, finding the 21 sailors aboard had not been paid properly and were owed in excess of $123,000.
The regulator also found sailors were being fed slim meals, with as little as two eggs given per day for each meal.
AMSA’s inspection found the water on the boat was also insufficient and undrinkable.
One sailor was also found to have gone untreated despite being injured on the ship.
AMSA executive director of operations Michael Drake said the regulator took a tough line on ships entering Australian waters which breached labour rules.
“Seafarers are often a forgotten workforce; they’re often away from their families for a long time with minimum pay,” he said.
“Seafarers know we will do something about it, we enforce the maritime labour convention comprehensively.”
This saw the nine year old ship detained again as the regulator awaits payment from the ship’s owner as well as action to fix the food and water issues on-board.
The ship has been banned from Australian waters for six months, the first time AMSA has hit a ship with heavy orders this year.
Last year, the AMSA banned four ships from Australian waters.
Extracted from The Australian