Great barrier reef. -- in danger ?

What a lot of people don't realise is that ALL of these ships will be foreign flaged vessels sailing in these waters under the single voyage permit system. Almost ALL of the crews will be foreign also.

They are not bound by the rigid standards of the Australian maritime Safety Authority that Australian flaged ships would be.

Disasters are bound to happen IMO. Gladstone is a disaster right now according to people I know who work there.

There are now less than 25 "blue water" ocean going vessels flying the Australian ensign. Australian shipping has been slowly killed over the past 20 years by the presiding governments at the time.

It frustrates me that an island country like Australia, Where most people live on the coast and good port infrastructure allready exists, Most freight is moved about on highways by heavy vehicle. Too many people are dying on the roads getting squashed by trucks. A properly organised shipping fleet would be much more efficient in every way. Unfortunately it can't satisfy the demand for "overnight freight".

Same's going to happen in NW west WA with the gas plants - why Govts let these criminals trash the jewels just blows me away
Entering areas like these shouldn't even be on the table to discuss stay outta there - verboten!

If Gina and Clive procreated, would they make a Dugong?

All right folks, move along. Nothing to see here but common sense

Maaaaaaaaaaate! Gina.............. naked!!!!!!!!!! I used to think about the queen mum when I was about to.... and wanted to go a bit further now I have seen Gina on the tv..... and also the poor old dear carked!

I'm confused because I thought manufacturing contributed more to the economy than mining. And what about 'services' at ~70% of GDP? Surely 'services' have made Australia what it is? I'm not saying mining isn't contributing, it so obviously is, but it's so exaggerated so often it makes me throw up a little. It employs directly ~2% of the population, and if you're going to include "related jobs" then you have to include related jobs for all the other sectors too.

If mining is such an awesome sector why do we subsidise it at $4b/year?

I have the solution.

1.- Define strict navigation corridors... like 300m wide.
2.- Put speed limits in (10kt)
3.- Put cameras (geostationary satellite) to monitor
4.- Fine the ships ridiculous amounts for offences... if the can't pay, they become fish food... or Gina/Clive can eat them.

The idea is to discourage ships from sailing (navigating) that area.
Whales could swim faster

I have worked on the container ship MSC RENA - note the name - and it is or was a piece of old s__t well passed it's use by date. Very common in the shipping industry and more so in the bulk shipping area.

Hey Gwendy, did you know that the Aus government has been having talks about Aus having a second shipping register? It will help the shipping owner keep labor costs down while still keeping well trained people in the top positions. ie Aus Officers and foreign crew.

With regards to the fines given to ship owners for damage to the environment, I think that the fines should be directed to the charterer. This would send the dirt boat industry down the same path as the tanker and offshore industries. ie OVID type audits. Most ships are owned by a shelf company that is not worth anything.
Also to do with the fines that are handed out, every ship in the world over 1,000 Gross tonnage has to have bunker a Certificate of liability insurance. This is as The Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 76. So at the end of the day the fine is not going to hurt the ship owner. Fine the Charterer!!!

Patsken Your comment on the condition about the being 'was a piece of old s__t well passed it's use by date.' Witch classification society do you work for? I am assuming that you are a class surveyor to make a statement such as this Why did you not pull the certificate of class from the ship? As you well know without a certificate of class the Rego is void and you will be sitting on the side of the road I believe the ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) was the classification society of this ship.

Tell the mining industry that if they have the $$$ to build a whole new port, a rail line to it, and implement a whole new shipping lane outgoing, then they must have the money to build a refinery here to USE what they dig up....... so we don't sell raw materials to asia and buy it back as finished product.

It would if we had any. When we had manufacturing in the dim distant past, the quality of Australian manufacturing was rated among the highest in the world.

The New World Order agenda is that Australia is to be the quarry for the rest of the world.

Australian manufacturing has been killed off and they are currently in the process of killing off our other primary industries of food production.

That is what the "Live cattle export controversy" was all about. Cattle farmers took a big hit with that one.

That is also what the "Murray-Darling water Management Scheme" is all about too.
The system has got more water than ever over the last couple of years and Lake Eyre has filled. But no. Cut off the water supply to the farmers all the way down.

Bundaberg is one of the biggest tomato growing areas in Aus yet the three biggest tomato producers in the area have gone bust. Why is it so?? Tomatoes in Woollworths Bundaberg currently cost $10/kilo yet in Woollworths Brisbane they cost $1/kilo. Why is that so??????

The fishing industry in Queensland is a tenth of what it was 20 years ago due to closures of fishing grounds, limiting of seasons, high fuel prices and onerous regulations imposed on the industry.

Imported seafood is way cheaper than locally caught. Why is that so??

This latest scare will be used as an excuse to shut down more of our maritime resources.

Phuck the mining boom. Shut down 75% of it and hold out for top prices at a regulated rate of extraction and save some of what we have for the future.

It is all just going up in smoke. Look at the cars these days. You pay $30,000 to $50,000 for a fairly average car that after 7 years is lucky to be worth $10,000 and is virtually unrepairable when, not if, something goes wrong with it.


It is all just going up in smoke. Nero plays the fiddle while Rome burns.

Yeah, you see many breakdowns on the side of the road compared to 30 years ago.