Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

GREAT BARRIER REEF MARINE PARK ACT 1975 - SECT 38J

             (1)  A person is guilty of an offence if:

                     (a)  the person intentionally or negligently discharges waste in the Marine Park; and

                     (b)  the discharge is not authorised by a permission that:

                              (i)  is granted or transferred to the person under the regulations; and

                             (ii)  is of a kind declared by the regulations to be a permission to which this section applies.

Penalty:  2,000 penalty units.

          (1A)  Subsection (1) does not apply if the discharge is sewage.

Note:          A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in subsection (1A) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code ).

          (1B)  A person is guilty of an offence if:

                     (a)  the person discharges waste in the Marine Park; and

                     (b)  the discharge is not authorised by a permission that:

                              (i)  is granted or transferred to the person under the regulations; and

                             (ii)  is of a kind declared by the regulations to be a permission to which this section applies.

Penalty:  500 penalty units.

          (1C)  An offence under subsection (1B) is an offence of strict liability.

Note:          For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .

          (1D)  Subsection (1B) does not apply if the discharge is sewage.

Note:          A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in subsection (1D) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code ).

             (2)  A person is guilty of an offence if:

                     (a)  a permission referred to in subsection (1) is subject to a condition; and

                     (b)  the condition applies to the person; and

                     (c)  the person engages in conduct; and

                     (d)  the conduct contravenes the condition.

Penalty:  200 penalty units.

          (2A)  The fault element for paragraph (2)(d) is negligence.

Note:          Section 5.5 of the Criminal Code defines negligence .

          (2B)  In subsection (2):

"engage in conduct" means:

                     (a)  do an act; or

                     (b)  omit to perform an act.

             (3)  This section does not apply to the discharging of waste in a zone where the relevant zoning plan makes provision for the zone to be used or entered for that purpose.

             (4)  This section does not apply to the discharge from a vessel or aircraft of:

                     (a)  sewage, if:

                              (i)  the vessel or aircraft, as the case may be, does not contain a storage tank of a kind designed for storage of sewage; or

                             (ii)  the vessel or aircraft, as the case may be, contains a storage tank of a kind designed for the storage of sewage and the vessel or aircraft is more than 500 metres seawards from the seaward edge of the nearest reef; or

                     (b)  fresh fish, or parts of fresh fish, if the fish were caught within the Marine Park.

             (5)  This section does not apply to the discharge of waste from a vessel, aircraft or platform by a person if:

                     (a)  the discharge was for the purpose of securing the safety of the vessel, aircraft or platform, as the case may be, or for the purpose of saving life at sea; or

                     (b)  the discharge:

                              (i)  was for the purpose of combating specific incidents of pollution in order to minimise the damage from pollution; and

                             (ii)  was approved by a prescribed officer; or

             (7)  In this section:

"discharge" means release, however the release is caused, and includes any escape, disposal, depositing, spilling, leaking, pumping, emitting or emptying.

"prescribed officer" has the same meaning as in subsection 3(2) of the Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983 but includes a person declared by the regulations to be a prescribed officer for the purposes of this section.

"reef" includes bommie fields, reef slopes, moats and ramparts.

"waste" means:

                     (a)  oil within the meaning of Part II of the Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983 ; and

                     (b)  oil mixtures if the oil content of the discharge is greater than 15 parts in 1,000,000 parts; and

                     (c)  noxious liquid substances within the meaning of Part III of that Act; and

                     (d)  packaged harmful substances within the meaning of Part IIIA of that Act; and

                     (e)  sewage within the meaning of Part IIIB of that Act; and

                      (f)  garbage within the meaning of Part IIIC of that Act; and

                     (g)  any other matter that is declared by the regulations to be waste for the purposes of this section.