Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I can advise the senator that, on the material I have before me, there is in fact a whole-of-government response to the incident underway—so all the different agencies of government—in terms of pollution response, wreck response, the maintenance of supplies to the island, and of course longer term environmental moni­toring and social and economic impacts being managed are being done in parallel.

There has been some bad weather and there are sections of the cove that have not been able to be closely inspected by diving. However, the report that I have says that there are no observable effects in terms of the impact on the rest of the cove itself.

A marine pollution response incident coordinator has been appointed by the safety authorities and, under the national plan arrangements, one has been on the island since 9 January 2012. Personnel from the Marine Safety Authority— (Time expired)