AMSA will be closed from 5 pm AEDT Tuesday 24 December 2024, re-opening on Thursday 2 January 2025. Our search and rescue will continue to operate every day (24/7) during this time. See which services are affected.

 SAFE SEASCLEAN SEASSAVING LIVES
Legislated role1. Promote maritime safety and protection of the marine environment2. Prevent and combat ship sourced pollution in the marine environment 
3. Provide infrastructure to support safe navigation in Australian waters4. Provide a national search and rescue service 
to the maritime and aviation sectors
5. Provide, on request, services to the maritime industry on a commercial basis 
 6.     Promote the efficient provision of services
Strategic priorities 2023–20271. Risk-based regulation: our actions and interventions as a safety regulator must be proportionate to the risk being managed and should not unnecessarily impede the efficient operations of those we regulate. Improving safety of navigation, seafarers and vessels must be at the core of what we do. We also need to make sure that we are anticipating and planning for new industries operating in the maritime environment, for example offshore wind farms, whilst continuing our traditional role of ensuring safety of navigation.2. Incident management capabilities: we want to take full advantage of improving capability in the areas of search and rescue coordination and environmental incident response by investing in our people and integrating new systems andtechnologies into our existing capabilities.
 3. Environment protection: the IMO has agreed goals that will significantly reduce greenhousegas emissions from international shipping. Australia has committed to these emission reductions and AMSA will be engaged in their implementation for many years to come. Broader environmental impacts from shipping and a changing risk landscape due to alternative fuels as the industry decarbonises will also be a focus. 
4. Engagement our stakeholder engagement is a critical element of our business. We engage with a diverse range of domestic and international stakeholders on a variety of issues, including seeking and receiving feedback, communicating regulatory and compliance issues, raising awareness and educating, shaping outcomes, delivering services, and coordinating responses, or other activities.It’s crucial that all our communication and engagement activities are effective, that is, coordinated, targeted, customised and fit-for-purpose. Our multilateral international engagement aims to shape global standards and agreements to meet Australia’s maritime interests. Our engagement with our bilateral partners serves two purposes: to collaborate to share information, knowledge and technology; and to work with key partners to help build their capability and resilience in maritime safety, environment pollution response, and search and rescue.
5. Business transformation: our organisation – its systems, processes, and people, must continue to evolve to meet government and community expectations. Our technology infrastructure and data management must keep pace with the rate of change in our regulated community and meet its demand for digital service delivery. As a government regulator we need to be vigilant with our service delivery transactions and utilise the data we collect to make evidence-based and risk-based decisions. Ensuring our people have the capability and capacity to deliver our core business and support business transformation is pivotal to realising AMSA’s Strategy 2030. To ensure our business transformation priorities maximise the benefits to both AMSA and our regulated community, we have established aPortfolio Board and Program Boards to ensure investment is being made in the right areas and there is appropriate oversight to achieve our strategic goals.
Key
activities
Promote maritime safetyProtect the marine environment from pollution from ships and other environmental damage caused by shippingProvide for a national search and rescue service
Core businessPromoting and enforcing standards for regulated vesselsMinimising pollution from shippingSaving lives daily through search and rescue coordination
Education, compliance and enforcement  
Supporting safe navigation 
Pre-emptively intervening to assure vessel safety
Seafarer competency and welfareDelivering an effective marine pollution response capability 
Delivering an effective incident response capability
International and domestic engagement
Contributing to and implementing international conventions

Core business enablers

  • Workforce engagement, development and safety
  • Good governance
  • Effective data management
  • Sound financial management
  • Reliable and responsive information technology