Charles Miranda, Peter Morley and Michael Madigan
July 10, 2009 12:00am
THE wealthy shipping boss at the centre of Queensland's worst environmental disaster is "not interested" in discussing the $34 million clean-up bill.
Sir John Swire yesterday shrugged off inquiries about compensation. Traced to his country estate in Kent, England, the life president of the Swire group said: "I'm not interested, thank you very much."
Sir John, 82, is one of Britain's wealthiest men and has contributed funds to keeping the sport of fox hunting alive in Britain. He also enjoys fishing
Swire is baulking at paying a $34 million bill after the Pacific Adventurer lost more than 270 tonnes of heavy fuel oil off Moreton Island in March.
The ship at the centre of the spill has been renamed in a bid to distance it from the environmental disaster that blackened beaches across the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Island.
The Pacific Adventurer has become the Pacific Mariner, just as the Exxon Valdez – which spilled 40 million litres of crude oil into Alaskan waters in March 1989 – became the Exxon Mediterranean.
The Pacific Mariner is now sailing from New Zealand to the Middle East and will be deployed on worldwide trade routes understood to exclude Australian ports.
A Swire spokesman said: "It was renamed the Pacific Mariner because it received worldwide negative publicity as a result of the accidental oil spill during Cyclone Hamish.
"This was a commercial decision. It is not uncommon in the shipping industry to rename a ship when it goes into dry dock before subsequently being redeployed."
Sir John's response was no surprise for the cash-strapped Sunshine Coast Regional Council, which spent more than $1 million cleaning up.
Full report at
Swire shipping boss wipes hands of oil spill bill | The Courier-Mail