8Australian‑owned ships

#### 8 Australian‑owned ships (1) A reference in this Act to an Australian‑owned ship shall be read as a reference to a ship that: (a) is owned by an Australian national or Australian nationals, and by no other person; (b) is owned (otherwise than as described in paragraph (c)) by 3 or more persons as joint owners, where the majority of those persons are Australian nationals; or (c) is owned by 2 or more persons as owners in common, where more than half of the shares in the ship are owned by an Australian national or Australian nationals. (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), where 2 or more persons are joint owners of a share or shares in a ship: (a) in the case of 2 or more particular shares that are owned by the same persons—the interest of each owner in the shares shall be ascertained by dividing the number of the shares by the number of the owners of the shares; and (b) in the case of a share to which paragraph (a) does not apply—the interest of each owner in the share shall be ascertained by dividing the number one by the number of the owners of the share; and, if the sum of the interests so ascertained in respect of all jointly‑owned shares in the ship as being interests of an Australian national or Australian nationals is a whole number or a whole number and a fraction, such number of those shares as is equal to that whole number shall be deemed to be owned by an Australian national or Australian nationals.