Ship insurance
New legislation was introduced on 18 May 2007 to enhance Maritime Safety Queensland’s principle of the “polluter pays”. The change has occurred under section 67A of the Transport Operations (Marine Pollution) Act 1995.
The new legislation requires all ships over 15 m (for example 15.01 m) in length to have insurance sufficient to pay for potential pollution clean up, salvage and wreck removal.
The insurance policy must meet the following requirements:- All recreational ships more than 15 m but less than 35 m in length must have an insurance policy that provides A$250,000 for pollution clean up and A$10,000,000 for salvage and wreck removal.
- All commercial ships more than 15 m but less than 35 m in length must have an insurance policy that provides A$500,000 for pollution clean up costs and A$10,000,000 for salvage and wreck removal.
- All ships 35 m or more in length must have a policy that provides A$10,000,000 for pollution clean up costs, salvage and wreck removal.
A 12 month transitional period has been introduced with the new legislation, giving ship owners until 18 May 2008 to organise appropriate insurance cover.
For those ships which cannot reasonably obtain insurance, the ship owner may be able to seek an exemption to the insurance requirement. In such cases the ship owner must apply to Maritime Safety Queensland. For further information on how to apply for an exemption, refer to the guideline (PDF**, 40KB) and Ship Insurance Exemption Application (PDF**, 58KB).For further information contact a regional Maritime Safety Queensland office or Maritime Services Branch on +61 7 3120 7428.
**While this department has taken every possible precaution with the creation of these files, they are downloaded and used at your own risk. Adobe Reader is required to open and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files and is free to download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Various tools to enable access to these files for people using a screen reader can be found at http://access.adobe.com. Further information is available from our "Help with downloading, reading and printing PDF" web page.
Last updated 28 April 2008
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