Darwin wharfies forced into COVID-19 quarantine at Howard Springs after allegedly uploading a foreign ship without adequate personal protection equipment will remain in isolation.
Their employer, stevedoring company Linx Cargo Care Group, attempted to win the 13 men's release in the NT Local Court, where it's challenging Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie's order.
But their application was on Friday rejected by Judge John Neil, who said he was satisfied Dr Heggie had made the correct decision.
The group was directed to 14 days' mandatory supervised quarantine last Friday after allegedly unloading the Tacoma Trader cargo vessel, which sailed from Singapore on June 5, without using the correct PPE.
Linx lawyer San-Joe Tan told the court it was the first time during the pandemic that port workers had been made to endure quarantine and separation from their families for doing their job.
He said there were other options available, such as home isolation and the stevedores were complying with their employer's safety procedures.
"There was no change in their processes for 13 months," he said
But Dr Heggie said he'd never been made aware wharf workers were unloading foreign ships without following the NT's health directions.
"My main concern was that the stevedores were at risk because they didn't have face masks," he said.
Dr Heggie told the court that despite the port workers not coming into direct contact with the ship's crew, there was still a risk they could have been infected.
This could have occurred if the crew was infected and stevedores touched surfaces on the Tacoma.
Independent COVID testing of the ship's crew on Thursday found it was not infected with the virus.
Mr Heggie's lawyer Tom Anderson said his client was obliged to take a risk-averse approach to secure public health.
"We're talking about a serious public health risk," he said.
"The economic risk to this community of a COVID outbreak could be in the millions of dollars as it has been in other jurisdictions," he said.
"If we get COVID in the Territory in vulnerable communities there could be deaths."
Mr Anderson said Mr Heggie was an expert and he had not made an error when he ordered the men into quarantine.
Judge Neil agreed and dismissed Linx's application to have its employees released from quarantine early.
"The CHO has a very heavy responsibility. That will most often put in place restrictions that will go far further than 20-20 hindsight will reveal were necessary," he said.
"There was a practice of stevedores of Linx company that their staff, when they went on a ship to unload, would wear protective gear appropriate to the nature of their work but that did not include face masks."
Outside court, Sarah Smith, whose husband Mathew is one of the stevedores forced into quarantine, said the ship's crew left Singapore two weeks ago and none of the crew had been found to be COVID positive.
"So if they're not infected why can't the men now be released? It's ridiculous," she said.
Commercial vessels entering into the NT from international waters are processed by Australian Border Force and the Australian Department of Agriculture, and are subject to the COVID-19 border arrival conditions.
The Tacoma sailed from Darwin on Thursday bound for Port Hedland in Western Australia, where it's set to unload more cargo containers.
Australian Associated Press
