New requirements commence on 1 June 2025. Are you ready?
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) new CEO, Ms Kaylene Dale, made a new Marine Order 504 on 14 November 2024.
The new Marine Order 504 enters into force on 1 June 2025. Marine Order 504 has legal effect and applies to all Domestic Commercial Vessels regulated by AMSA under the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012 (the National Law). That means almost every commercial vessel in Australia will be bound to comply with the new marine order in about 3 months’ time.
HOW WAS MARINE ORDER 504 MADE?
AMSA engaged in a consultation process from 28 May 2024 through 28 July 2024, a period of eight and a half weeks. AMSA developed a ‘consultation hub’ on their website which included the draft MO504 instrument, a summary of the proposed changes, the regulatory costings analysis and a timeline of the key dates. The consultation hub was viewed over 20,000 times throughout the course of the consultation.
The consultation was promoted through the following channels:
- a news item on the AMSA website
- an article in the ‘AMSA Update’ newsletter which has over 20,000 subscribers
- over 50,000 direct emails sent to stakeholders within the DCV industry
- organic and paid social media posts on Facebook and LinkedIn which were viewed over 1 million times.
AMSA received a total of 109 submissions during the consultation period – 97 were received via the online submission form, 12 were received via email. Most submissions received were from DCV owners, operators, masters and crew (approx. 75%). The remaining submissions were received from National and State industry associations (approx. 13%), other maritime professionals (approx. 9%) and State and Federal government agencies (approx. 3%).
Approximately half of the submissions focused on the hours of rest proposal, which is described further below.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHANGES TO MARINE ORDER 504?
Perhaps the most useful change is the simplified Safety Management System (SMS) requirement for smaller, less complex vessels and operations. The new definition for a ‘lower complexity vessel’ applies to:
- Vessels less than 7.5m in length,
- For class 2 DCV’s (<12 passengers) that have no more than 4 day passengers,
- The vessel doesn’t carry dangerous goods,
- The vessel doesn’t have equipment that could negatively affect stability (net reels, cranes and similar), and
- The vessel is not used for towage, amongst other criteria.
For such ‘lower complexity vessels’, the ‘risk assessment’ does not require a consideration of the daily tasks to be performed by the master and all crew, and also does not require a consideration of stability. Many DCV owners that fit the requirements of a ‘lower complexity vessel’ will no doubt welcome this development, making marine safety compliance a little less onerous.
Aside from this modest improvement, further changes include:
- clarifying and strengthening fatigue management (more on which below)
- enhancing the management of risks from drug and alcohol use, which means a requirement for a drug & alcohol policy
- ensuring that roles and responsibilities for the safe operation of the vessel are clear
- updating the assembly station requirements in the vessel’s emergency plan
- aligning procedures for onboard operations and emergency preparedness with risk
- addressing operational risks to vessel stability
- amending the certificate of operation renewal criteria to reduce administrative burden.
THE CONTROVERSIAL HOURS OF REST PROPOSAL
Perhaps the most controversial issue is the fatigue management rules. AMSA describes the feedback as follows: The feedback on the proposal was mixed, with strong support received from seafarers from certain sectors such as towage, oil and gas and offshore construction, and strong opposition from other sectors including some members of the fishing industry.
Regulation 8 (4) MO504 requires a vessel to have sufficient crew such that “the master and each crew member to have at least 10 hours rest in each 24 hour period.” This requirement resembles the international rules that apply to international seafarers (the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers), which requires similar hours of work and rest balance, but it is not a positive obligation that the master and crew must have 10 hours rest. The AMSA proposal for the new MO504 was to make the 10 hours of rest mandatory. It is hardly surprising that many sectors of the Australian Commercial Marine Industry found that proposal controversial, especially in commercial fishing. The implications for crewing, costs and compliance in smaller vessels are immediately obvious.
AMSA haven’t given up on the proposal, saying that “AMSA will now further consider the feedback received on the hours of rest proposal to inform future policy decisions. However, no changes to hours of rest will be made as part of this review process.”
CONCLUSION – The new MO504 might be viewed as evolution rather than revolution. The simplified SMS procedure for lower complexity vessels is a welcome development, and owners of such vessels should review their SMS accordingly.
The controversial hours of rest proposal has not progressed at this time, but it is expected to resurface in a future review of Marine Order 504.
If in doubt about MO504 and how it applies to you and your DCV, call your local friendly maritime lawyers.
Capt. John Kavanagh (Principal Lawyer – Master Mariner) Ph: 0481 170 373 john@pacificmaritimelawyers.com.au
Published in print April-July 2025
