Transcript
32 days after the Solomon Trader first got wedged on the reef, and 21 days after it started leaking oil, Rick Hou has finally fronted the media.
The government had acted from day one, he insisted, sending disaster officials to the scene and asking for Australia's help as soon as was possible.
Mr Hou said the ship's owner, Hong Kong-based King Trading, its South Korean insurer and the operator of the bauxite mine, Bintan and APID, are responsible.
He said he was infuriated by the low priority the companies had given the disaster.
APID and BMSI are fully and vicariously liable because without mining and the charter arrangements which both are responsible for, the ship would never have been in Rennell. The government is concerned that the overall response by the ship's owners and insurers, has been very slow.
A salvage operation is finally in full swing at Rennell, and Mr Hou says he's confident the spill has been contained.
But a hundred tonnes of oil has already leaked in one of the world's most pristine marine areas -- one the UN said was already endangered.
Mr Hou says the bay's ecological impact is devastated, much of it unlikely to recover.
He says it's a disaster that should never have happened.
The government cannot and will not accept any claims by the company that this accident was outside their control. The company and the ship are also very aware of the cyclone season. They would have heard the weather warnings that went out. We cannot accept this was unforeseen. Rather, we see this was as constituting a very careless action by the ship's crew.
Mr Hou is currently the caretaker prime minister, with national elections due on the 3rd of April.
And that's likely to bring the issue of mining -- a long-running issue that brings vast sums of money to both villages and politicians' pockets -- to the fore in the next few weeks.
At his news conference, Mr Hou said he was outraged that while the Solomon Trader sat there leaking oil, ships chartered by Bintan continued to go around it to pick up bauxite, stirring up the oil.
Mr Hou says restricting activity on the bay would bring significant benefits to the recovery operation.
The salvage operations can run unabated and the risks to salvaging personnel is minimised. Reduced movement of crafts will enhance a faster clearance of the oil spill from the bay area. A rapid assessment is undertaken on the oil spill and the marine environment.
Mr Hou says Bintan has exported more than 64 loads of bauxite, and - apart from direct employment to some Rennell locals -- the country has seen no tax or royalty payments.
He says the government will look at the future of the operations.
The decision on the company mining lease and development consent will be done when all assessments I have instructed have been completed. We have laws in this country and regardless of the inadequacies in some areas they still form the basis upon which decisions relating to the mining lease and development consent must be addressed.
In a statement this week, the ship's owner and insurer apologised to the country, saying they had deep remorse.
But they added that matters of liability were still being worked out.
