CANBERRA, June 15 AAP - Family First senator Steve Fielding
wants shipwrecked adventurer sailors to contribute to the cost of
their rescue if they make money from their ordeal.
Senator Fielding plans on introducing a bill to parliament which
would see adventurers forced to use the profits from media deals to
pay back their Australian rescuers.
The legislation would target sailors such as American teenager
Abby Sunderland, whose round-the-world sailing attempt came to an
untimely end last week.
Ms Sunderland left Los Angeles on January 23 in the hope of
becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, but
Indian Ocean storms damaged her boat beyond repair.
She was first contacted by Australian rescuers in a chartered
Qantas Airbus A330 that made a 7600km round trip - near the limit
of its range - from Perth to her yacht .
"While Australian rescue authorities have been working around
the clock to save Abby's life, her family has been working on
securing media deals so they can profit from her misadventure,"
Senator Fielding said.
"No one should be getting rich off the back of a media deal
while at the same time leaving the Australian taxpayers out of
pocket."