Tasmanian Consolidated Acts Tasmanian Consolidated Acts
(1) The costs incurred by or on behalf of a Government department, State authority, council or port operator in dealing with either of the following incidents are taken to be costs incurred on behalf of the Crown:
(a) a maritime casualty or other incident involving the actual or potential discharge of a marine pollutant into State waters from a ship;
(b) a maritime casualty or other incident involving the actual or potential discharge of a marine pollutant into State waters from a pipeline or other apparatus used for transferring a marine pollutant between a ship and a shore facility, where the incident is caused by the negligence of the person who owns or operates the shore facility or by an employee or agent of that person.
(2) The Director, on behalf of the Crown, may recover the costs from –
(a) if subsection (1)(a) applies, the owner or master of the ship; or
(b) if subsection (1)(b) applies, the owner or operator of the shore facility.
(3) The costs may –
(a) be awarded to the Crown in the course of proceedings for an offence against this Act in respect of the relevant discharge, whether or not the person against whom those proceedings are brought is convicted of the offence; or
(b) be recovered in a court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to the Crown, notwithstanding that proceedings have not been taken for an offence against this Act in respect of the relevant discharge.
(4) The Director, if unable to recover the whole or any part of the costs as provided by subsection (2) or section 39, must take such action as is necessary to obtain recompense from the Commonwealth under the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances.
(5) Subsection (4) does not apply if the marine pollutant referred to in subsection (1)(a) or (b) is garbage.
(6) For the purposes of this section, a cost is taken to have been incurred in dealing with an actual or potential discharge of a marine pollutant into State waters if the cost is attributable to any one or more of the following activities:
(a) planning, coordinating and generally implementing the response to the actual or potential discharge;
(b) stopping, reducing, containing, dispersing or removing the actual discharge or preventing the potential discharge;
(c) taking measures to safeguard human life;
(d) taking measures to safeguard, or mitigate damage done to, the physical environment;
(e) taking measures to move, safeguard or salvage a ship or its cargo;
(f) taking control of or sinking or destroying a ship, including any part of a broken-up ship;
(g) cleaning up and otherwise rehabilitating the physical environment or anything else that may have been damaged because of the actual or potential discharge;
(h) procuring and deploying machinery, equipment or material to deal with the actual or potential discharge or with its effects or probable effects;
(i) procuring and deploying expertise, labour or other human resources to deal with the actual or potential discharge or with its effects or probable effects.