This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A P&O cruise ship spilled 27,000 litres of food waste and grey water into the Great Barrier Reef marine park in August, a Senate estimates hearing has heard.

The Greens senator Larissa Waters told the hearing a report from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority – which is investigating the incident – had been supplied to her anonymously.

The report says the spill occurred on 26 August after food waste was transferred to the Pacific Explorer’s galley holding tank due to a shortage in capacity in its food waste tanks.

Waste from the galley tank was then discharged by engineers in the marine park. The report says the vessel became aware of the incident late on 27 August.

The hearing heard P&O reported the spill to Amsa but the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was not informed until 4 September.

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“We were advised by Amsa that there had been a spill and that they were taking action with respect to that particular spill,” Simon Banks, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s general manager of reef protection, told the hearing.

The authority said it would supply more information on notice, including whether the incident had been made public, and what, if any, environmental impact had occurred.

The authority’s chairman, Russell Reichelt, later made a statement to the hearing that Amsa was still investigating.

“The Australian Maritime Safety Authority are investigating it,” he said. “A pilot was on board the vessel and the marine park authority was advised of that report on the 4th of September.

“So it’s under investigation.”

After the hearing, Waters questioned why the incident had not been made public.

“It shouldn’t have taken an anonymous source and me asking questions in estimates for the public to find out about this,” she said. “If a major cruise ship company thinks that the public won’t find out about their pollution, then they are less likely to take the issue seriously.

“The public have a right to know about pollution breaches in our Great Barrier Reef and the government should be upfront about such incidents.”

She also expressed concern the vessel was one of the ships being leased for events as part of November’s Apec summit in Port Moresby.

“Unless the ship has shown its procedures are now watertight, and have paid to clean up any damage it has caused, it’s not appropriate be used in the upcoming Apec CEO summit,” she said. “The Australian government should have advised the PNG government not to lease the vessel given it is under investigation by Amsa for breaching pollution control rules.”

A spokeswoman for P&O said the company had “self-reported to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) that it was suspected there had been an unintentional discharge of a limited amount of pulped and sieved food waste while Pacific Explorer was off the coast of Queensland on August 26”.

“Any unintentional discharge of food waste would have been in the order of seven cubic metres,” she said.

She said it was an isolated incident and the cruise line was cooperating with Amsa’s investigation.

“P&O Cruises is committed to the protection of the marine environment and this is supported by very strong fleet policies and operating procedures,” she said.