Media Release

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter is pleading with the Australian Prime Minister to request that the Japanese Prime Minister ramps up the search for the 40 crew of the sunken Gulf Livestock 1 ship, including Queensland man Lukas Orda and another Australian.

The Australian Consular Emergency Centre advised Lukas Orda’s family on September 7 that information supplied by the Philippines Consul-General (Osaka) from one of the survivors who was washed overboard:

‘When the engine of the ship failed in the storm the captain called all crew on the bridge in life vests to enter the lifeboats, three crew could not reach the bridge and were washed overboard. When a big wave hit the ship and pushed it on the side the second survivor was washed off the bridge and lights went off.’

From the information provided by rescued crew members there are still four life rafts and one lifeboat which have not been found or accounted for, and there has been no sightings of any other dead bodies of the remaining 40 crew.

This information has left the Orda family believing that there are survivors still out there. Mr Katter said he didn’t think anything short of the Prime Minister’s intervention would get a breakthrough and the full search resumed.

“We contacted the PM’s office late yesterday afternoon in relation to the suspended search for the Gulf Livestock 1 ship after a typhoon south-west of Japan.

“The PM must call the American Navy for any nearby vessels to start a search,” he said.

“All Australians would take a very dim view of anything but a thorough search. The Prime Minister must understand this fact and the Japanese must understand this fact.

“We have Australian parents sitting at home in Mount Isa pleading with our Government to intervene when there is a better than 70 per cent chance that that boy is on a raft out there somewhere and possibly alive.

“We spoke to the Foreign Affairs Minister to advise her personally of the situation. We have also spoken with the Japanese Ambassador in Canberra who has put a terrific effort in in finding them during the typhoons but you just can’t see anything in those conditions. So we are renewing our efforts through the Prime Minister in asking them to throw all efforts at finding these men.

“When the Malaysian Airlines plane went down, MH370 we searched for three months to two years and tens of millions was spent. A search with a huge swell in the sea would be very iffy at the best of times. We must do everything we can to find this young man. His family is well loved and respected.

“There will be a very angry response from the people of Australia if these boys are left out there, he said”

KAP Member for Traeger Robbie Katter supported the Orda family as they read out a statement to media in Townsville today.

“We’ve been in contact with the Orda family for the past week and been through the ordeal with many people in the North-West Queensland community and all those people touched by Lukas,” Mr Katter said.

“On the evidence that’s there at the moment, I think there’s a very good reason to keep searching; four life boats are still unaccounted for and people can live for up to 30 days on a life boat.”

He said all resources needed to be thrown at the search effort.

“We are appealing directly to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs for immediate assistance.

“We need to deploy whatever assets are available. We owe it to these people to keep searching.”

-ENDS-