Mr BAYLEY - I would like to move on to the cement carrier, Goliath. I understand that proceedings have been lodged in the High Court in respect of the 2022 collision. Can I confirm that the matter has not yet been resolved?
Mr DONALD - That is correct.
Mr BAYLEY - Does that mean that CSL Australia has yet to pay for any of the damages? In the Federal, not the High Court.
Mr DONALD -Not yet.
Mr BAYLEY - In relation to Goliath and the more recent 2023 incident, I understand that you indicated that the engine failure experienced by Goliath was a result of human error. Are you able to elaborate on the nature of that?
Mr FERGUSON - We'll do our best to respond. We have the harbour master as well. I am comfortable with our team here responding and helping you with your question as best we can. We do have to have some circumspection here because it is obviously a live legal matter.
Mr BAYLEY - I appreciate that.
Mr FERGUSON - There may be some limitations in how much we are able to share outside of the court process. Over to you, CEO and harbour master.
Capt WALL - I am happy to address that second incident that you refer to, Mr Bayley. That was, indeed, human error with regard to the set up of the main engine's fuel system. They had new employees on board. One new employee at the time had been following the on board safety management procedures of the ship but had no oversight or double checking from the chief engineer to make sure that they had been set up in the right configuration. Hence, momentarily the ship literally ran out of fuel. Then they opened the correct valves, set up the system in line with how it should have been set up and then they restored fuel to the engine.
Mr BAYLEY - Thank you. Noting that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau indicated that it was not going to investigate this because it did not indicate any kind of systemic challenge or problem, without reflecting on that decision, from a lay perspective, two incidents from the same ship does seem like there is some kind of problem.
Are you confident with the Goliath still utilising your facilities going forward? Are you comfortable with the systems that they have got in place and the level of safety that is afforded to your staff and facilities, and so forth?
Mr DONALD - Talk about your own level of comfort but talk about the additional controls that we have put in place.
Capt. WALL - Thank you, Anthony. Yes, we are comfortable. We have put in place additional levels of control around the requirement for towage and a marine pilot to be onboard for arrivals and departures. We are in ongoing discussion with the shipping management company for CSL with regard to what we think are suitable risk mitigation and risk treatments we have in place around the safe movement of the ship in and out of Devonport. They are requesting to return to the previous system of operation where the exempt masters would conduct the vessel themselves, similar to Spirit of Tasmania.
Mr BAYLEY - Are all the requests or suggestions that you're putting forward and asking them to take up being taken up by the company?
Capt WALL - We're still discussing that with them at this point in time, so what level of take up is still to be determined.
Mr BAYLEY - When do you expect that to be resolved?
Capt. WALL - They had communications with me recently, as part of our ongoing assessment, so I would assume that in the next couple of months we will be one step further down that track. Whether or not we will remove any of those risk mitigation treatments will be subject to assessment. Then, going forward, we'll make a decision on that.
Mr BAYLEY - Are any of them likely to affect the frequency of the visit of the ship, or any other operational side?
Capt. WALL - We're able to service that vessel as required.
