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NSW Government OHS Acts and Regulations
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The New South Wales minerals industry is currently regulated through the following New South Wales Government Acts and Regulations:
The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 (OHS Act) covers all workplaces within NSW, including the NSW mining industry. The objects of the Act are to:
- Secure and promote the health, safety and welfare of people at work
- Protect people at a place of work against risks to health or safety arising out of the activities of persons at work
- Promote a safe and healthy work environment for people at work that protects them from injury and illness and that is adapted to their physiological and psychological needs
- Provide for consultation and co-operation between employers and employees in achieving the objects of this Act
- Ensure that risks to health and safety at a place of work are identified, assessed and eliminated or controlled
- Develop and promote community awareness of occupational health and safety issues
- Provide a legislative framework that allows for progressively higher standards of occupational health and safety to take account of changes in technology and work practices
- Deal with the impact of particular classes or types of dangerous goods and plant at, and beyond, places of work.
The NSW mining industry is further regulated by the following Act and Regulation:
The Coal Mine Health & Safety Act 2002 and its Regulations only apply to all places of work that are within a colliery holding or a coal exploration site. This Act also applies to abandoned coal operations and emplacement areas.
The objects of this Act are to assist in securing the objects of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 in relation to coal operations (including the object of securing and promoting the health, safety and welfare of people at work at coal operations or related places), to put in place special provisions necessary for the control of particular risks arising from the mining of or exploration for coal, and to ensure that effective provisions for emergencies are developed and maintained at coal operations and related places.
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The Coal Mine Health & Safety Act 2002 (CMHSA) has been reviewed by the NSW Government. The NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) maintains that it is important to ensure that the Act provides a fair, practicable and transparent process for all to follow. The current CMHS Act and Regulation often entrenches outcomes that do not meet these criteria. For example, the overlapping requirements between the CMHS legislation and Occupational Health and Safety legislation can be contradictory and create confusion for meeting compliance.
NSWMC’s detailed submission advocated that the following amendments are required:
- In order to reduce duplication and unnecessary administrative burden, the CMHS Act should be amended to incorporate relevant provisions from other legislation including the OHS Act and Regulation
- The application of the CMHS Act must be clarified to remove inconsistencies and double negatives (see for example the wording in Schedule 1). As the provisions in the CMHS Act are very prescriptive, it is critical that the geographic and activity based tests for application of the Act be retained. This will ensure that only activities on a colliery holding are subject to the onerous obligations
- The OHS Regulation should only apply to non-mining activities, such as construction work, on the colliery holding
- NSWMC supports simplifying the current nomination and approval provisions by removing the requirement for approval by DPI. There are a number of concerns with the current approval process, including the unreasonableness of the grounds for rejection and the time delay in the process. These have substantial commercial and employment impacts for operations
- Where relevant, the CMHS legislation must be consistent with the OHS legislation to remove unnecessary duplication. The CMHS legislation must also reflect the risk based approach in the OHS legislation.
- NSWMC recommends that the provision under the CMHS Act and Regulation should be simplified to eliminate duplication regarding the role of NSW DPI and the industry check inspector.
On 1 September 2009, Industry and Investment NSW (now DTIRIS) released their Review of Coal Mine Health and Safety Act 2002.
On 26 May 2010 the Coal Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2010 was assented. The amendment bill implemented the changes identified in the review.
Mine Health Safety Act 2004
Mine Health Safety Regulation 2007
The Mine Health & Safety Act and its Regulation applies to any place where:
- The extraction of material from land for the purpose of recovering minerals or quarry product is carried out
- The treatment of any such extracted material, or the treatment of minerals or quarry product, is carried out, if that place is at or near the place from which the material, minerals or quarry product were extracted
- The storage or treatment of waste from recovering and treatment of minerals
- Mining exploration is carried out
- The treatment of zircon, rutile, ilmenite, monazite and associated minerals is carried out.
The Act also covers an abandoned mine other than an abandoned mine used for the storage, treatment or disposal of waste, as well as any place on which drilling operations are carried out.
The objects of this Act are to assist in securing the objects of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 at mines (including the object of securing and promoting the health, safety and welfare of persons at work at mines or related places); to ensure that the particular hazards associated with mines are identified and that risks arising from those hazards are assessed and eliminated or controlled; to ensure that effective provisions for emergencies are developed and maintained at mines; and to ensure that managers, supervisors and employees are competent, by ensuring that appropriate health and safety competencies are defined and are implemented in the mining and quarrying industry.
The Mine Health and Safety Act 2004 was due for statutory review on 28 September 2009.
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