EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO. 20
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport
NAVIGATION (MASTER AND SEAMEN) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Shipping Registration Act 1981 has been proclaimed to come into operation on 26 January 1982. It fixes the conditions for the registration of ships in Australia and enables ships to be granted Australian nationality and the right to fly the Australian flag. Hitherto, ships have been registered in Australia as British ships under Part I of the United Kingdom Merchant Shipping Act, but repeal of that law, by the Shipping Registration Act, takes effect on 26 January 1982. The Navigation Amendment Act 1981 will, on commencement of the Shipping Registration Act, provide for consequential removal from the Navigation Act 1912 of references to the registration of ships under the Merchant Shipping Act and to ‘British’ and ‘foreign’ ships.
There are also references in the Navigation (Master and Seamen) Regulations to registered ships and a ship’s port of registry.
The purpose of these consequential amendments is to alter the first-mentioned reference to refer to ships to which Part II of the Navigation Act applies; this is a convenient way of referring to ships registered in Australia, engaged in the coasting trade, or that otherwise have a definite Australian connection. A reference to ‘port of registry’ is being changed to refer to a ship’s home port as the new
registration provisions provide for home ports but not for ports of registry.
The Navigation Amendment Act 1981 also omits from the Navigation Act a provision that particulars of the birth, death or disappearance of a passenger being carried to a port in Australia in a British ship not registered in Australia or engaged in the coasting trade are to be entered in the ship’s log book and reported to the authorities on arrival. This was part of a common system under the British Commonwealth Merchant Shipping Agreement 1931 which was terminated in 1979 and the requirement is now covered under the law of the country whose flag the ship is carrying.
The amendments of the Regulations therefore also omit references in the Regulations to this requirement.
It is provided that the amendments come into force on 26 January 1982, the date on which the new registration provisions commence.