Changes to the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013 passed by NSW Parliament in May come into effect 1 August.
The amendments were the result of recommendations from a 2020 statutory review into Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) laws.
A key change is penalties for offences under the Act and Regulation. Rather than a monetary value, penalties will be expressed as penalty ‘units’ and indexed in line with the consumer price index.
The remaining Act amendments are relatively minor and include:
- updating references to ‘the Department’ to ‘Regional NSW’ and the ‘regulator’ to the ‘Resources Regulator’
- codifying current practice for nationwide criminal record and other relevant probity checks for Ministerial appointment of industry safety and health representatives
- ensuring the Mining and Petroleum Competence Board Chair is independent of the entities that may nominate prospective board members
- enabling the service of documents on a person or a body corporate by email.
