Formal Consultation Process for the Work Health and Safety (Resources) Bill

The Department of Mines and Petroleum’s (DMP) Resources Safety Division is undertaking a review of Western Australia’s resources safety legislation, under the Safety Legislation Reform program.

Current Regulatory Framework

Currently, the safety legislation covering mining, petroleum and major hazard facilities (MHFs) is spread across six separate Acts and regulations, and in some cases involves regulation by both DMP and the WorkSafe Division of the Department of Commerce. The current structure is not the most efficient and effective form to enable achievement of safety objectives.

Mines Safety

DMP’s legislative jurisdiction covers mining operations, which includes exploration activities. Mining occupational safety and health is currently regulated under the Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994 (MSIA) and regulations.

Petroleum Safety

Petroleum safety and health is currently regulated under a number of State and Commonwealth Acts. Under COAG arrangements, petroleum legislation in the various States and Territories is broadly aligned with Commonwealth legislation, although there has been regulatory drift over time.

State legislation

Onshore and in State Waters, petroleum occupational safety and health is currently regulated under the following Western Australian legislation:

• Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 and regulations;
• Petroleum Pipelines Act 1969 and regulations; and
• Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982 and regulations.

Commonwealth legislation

In Commonwealth Waters, petroleum occupational safety and health is regulated by National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Commonwealth).

Major Hazard Facilities Safety

There are around 20 sites which are classified as MHFs, including explosives storage/production facilities and some large petroleum or mineral processing plants, such as the Burrup Gas Plant near Karratha, and the nickel processing plant at Murrin-Murrin.

MHF safety and health is currently regulated by different regulators, under the following legislation:

• Process safety is regulated by the Department of Mines and Petroleum under the Dangerous Goods Safety Act 2004 and regulations; and
• Occupational safety and health is regulated by the WorkSafe division of the Department of Commerce under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 (OSH Act) and regulations.

Proposed Legislation

While there are safety risks that are unique to each industry sector (mining, petroleum, MHFs), there are a number of elements that are common to these industries. With this in mind, DMP identified an opportunity to streamline and simplify the structure of the safety legislation.

In late 2014, stakeholders considered five options to consolidate and simplify safety legislation, as part of a Regulatory Impact Statement consultation process. In January 2015, the RIS was finalised, and recommended unification of safety legislation covering mining, petroleum and MHFs into a single Act, under one regulator: DMP.

In developing the proposed legislation, DMP has maintained consistency as much as possible for workers and operations in all sectors of the resources industry. The modernised and consolidated legislation, the ‘Work Health and Safety (Resources) Bill’, should enable the use of common terminology and compliance requirements, remove duplication, simplify approvals, documentation and reporting, as well as reducing legal/consultant and administrative costs. These benefits apply to industry and government.

The new legislation does not represent a ‘one size fits all’ approach, as there will be some sector-specific provisions in the Act and regulations. The WHS (Resources) Bill is quite high-level, containing mainly generic provisions. Detailed requirements and sector-specific provisions will be in the regulations, which will be subject to another RIS consultation process in early 2016.

The objective for the proposed legislation is to develop a regulatory structure that supports the delivery of high standards of safety in an efficient, equitable and consistent manner across mining, petroleum and MHFs. In addition, the regulatory structure seeks to improve:

• health and safety outcomes while balancing regulatory burden; and
• consistency between the industries and with the Commonwealth while recognising sector-specific risks and approaches to risk management.

DMP has committed to full and open stakeholder consultation. This requires another independently-managed Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) process, to identify the issues, costs and benefits of the Work Health and Safety (Resources) Bill.