Australasian Mine Safety is the leading voice for all key decision makers within Mining company's and major contractors. Delivering the latest industry news as it breaks.
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/52244
6 The Australasian Mine Safety Journal Summer 2011/12 Industry Q&A In this issue we speak with General Secretary of Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) – Mining and Energy Division, Andrew Vickers, about the National Mine Safety Framework (NMSF). What is the CFMEU's view on the proposed NMSF draft legislation as it currently stands? We still have some concerns about it; although there have been unquestionably some dramatic improvements from our perspective in the last short period of time. We're continuing to work both with the National Mine Safety Framework Steering Group and Safe Work Australia to ensure that we are completely comfortable with the end result. I think we're actually getting there now. I'm far more comfortable than what I was when I hung up and refused to further participate on a phone conference in about February or March, for example, when it was just outrageous what was coming back. What specific improvements were addressed? There has been recognition, and it's taken quite some time, that the physical environment and the nature of work, particularly in underground coal mines, can't be simply and easily regulated by broad-brush regulations and/or codes of practices. And irrespective of the ideological position of some of the people within Safe Work Australia or the people in the SIG-OHS (Strategic Issues Group on Occupational Health and Safety) about prescriptive legislation being an anathema to them, the facts of the matter are that without prescriptive legislation we would be murdering people in underground coal mines, and we're simply not going to accept that. There has been this belated but actual recognition that in terms of OHS regulation for particularly underground coal mines, but the mining industry more generally – we have learnt a lot from the terrible tragedies of the past – and current OHS legislation particularly in the major mining states of Queensland and NSW and a slightly lesser extent Western Australia where they're still learning in all honesty, the improvements that have been made in OHS legislation have led to quite dramatic improvements in OHS outcomes. None of that can be allowed to go backwards by going back to a time where the legislation was simply inadequate and didn't stop things like the Atherton, Moura and Kianga disasters. When do you expect the NMSF to be enacted nationally? I am absolutely confident it won't be before 1 July 2012. I am aware that Former Minister [for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations] Chris Evans communicated with ministerial colleagues that the timeframe of 1 January 2012 was simply unachievable. I also know that Safe Work Australia aren't coming back with a new draft set of regulations for mining until sometime early in 2012; so 1 January 2012 is simply gone. One of the big criticisms that we had was that there was an obscene rush to get these regulations finished to meet this arbitrary deadline of 1 January 2012, and that was precluding proper consideration of pages and pages of detail. It's pretty clear that the process which we're now going through is involving a lot more consultation with industry stakeholders, and as a consequence the regulations are now being whipped into shape, which at the end of the day, with a combination of what will go into the general mining regulations and what will go into the industry-specific regulations in Queensland, NSW and WA – and I have to wait until I see the final version – I'm far more comfortable than what I was even a matter of about two months ago. What impact is the NMSF likely to have on the sector? For the bulk of the industry, which is pushing 90 per cent plus, it won't have an impact because what will be in either the new OHS Act and regulations or retained in industry-specific regulation in Queensland, NSW and WA, will be what people are currently used to. There may be a minimal impact on Victoria, SA and NT, where there will be some more prescription and tighter controls, but again, in nine cases out of 10, the companies that are already operating in those states – and bearing in mind it's a very small portion of the Australian mining industry – are operating in other states under a stricter regime anyway; so it's not going to bother them.