10th Feb 2020, 4:08 PM – Senate Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Amendment (Improving Safety) Bill 2019 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the main idea of the bill. This means they can now discuss it in more detail. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time.

What is the bill's main idea?

The purpose of the bill is "to require masters of certain vessels to conduct two headcounts of passengers, one at the start of a voyage and one at the end."

Background to the bill

According to the bill's explanatory memorandum:

This bill is needed to avoid a similar case occurring to that which happened with the tragic loss of Mr Damien Mills when he fell off the back of a boat undetected and died in 2014. Had the master of that vessel conducted a headcount when the boat got back to Fremantle, they would have realised that Mr Mills was missing and they could have alerted the appropriate authorities. WA Water Police, in giving evidence to the Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the performance of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, stated that had they been made aware that Mr Mills had fallen overboard at the time the vessel docked, they would have had a very strong chance of finding him alive.