Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

NAVIGATION ACT 1912 - SECT 128

             (1)  If:

                     (a)  any of the expenses attendant on the illness, hurt, or injury of a seaman, which are to be paid under this Act by the master or owner, are paid by any authority on behalf of the Commonwealth; or

                     (b)  any other expenses in respect of the illness, hurt, or injury of any seaman whose wages are not accounted for under this Act to that authority are so paid;

those expenses shall be repaid to the authority by the master of the ship.

             (2)  If the expenses are not so repaid, the amount thereof shall with costs be a charge upon the ship, and be recoverable:

                     (a)  from the master or owner of the ship for the time being; or

                     (b)  where the ship has been lost--from the person who was the owner of the ship immediately prior to the time of its loss or abandonment; or

                     (c)  where the ship has been transferred to some person not being a British subject or a citizen of a prescribed country--either from the owner for the time being or from the person who was the owner at the time of transfer;

as a debt to the Commonwealth, either by ordinary process of law or in the same court and manner as wages due to seamen.

          (2A)  A charge that arises under subsection (2) and that relates to expenses that are being recovered in the same court and manner as wages due to seamen has priority over a PPSA security interest in the ship.

          (2B)  Subsection 73(2) of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 applies to a charge covered by subsection (2A).

Note 1:       The effect of subsection (2B) is that the priority between a charge covered by subsection (2A) and a PPSA security interest is to be determined in accordance with this Act rather than the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 .

Note 2:       Subsection 73(2) of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 applies to charges that are covered by subsection (2A) that arise after the commencement of subsection (2B) of this section (which commences at the registration commencement time within the meaning of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 ).

             (3)  In any proceeding for such recovery, a certificate of the facts, signed by the said authority, together with such vouchers (if any) as the case requires, shall be sufficient proof that the expenses were duly paid by that authority.