Page 3796 - Week 10 - Thursday, 27 August 2009
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This bill regulates the transport of dangerous goods by road. It is based on model legislation developed by the National Transport Commission.
The transport of dangerous goods by road in the ACT is currently regulated under the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Act 1995. The commonwealth act gives effect to the ninth edition of the United Nations Model Regulations for the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the sixth edition of the Australian Dangerous Goods Code.
The National Transport Commission’s model legislation is a significant update and is based on the 14th edition of the United Nations model regulations and will give effect to the seventh edition of the Australian Dangerous Goods Code, which is based on the later edition of the United Nations model regulations. The bill will ensure that the road transport sector is no longer out of step with accepted international standards for the transport of dangerous goods.
Since New South Wales has already adopted the model legislation, the cross-border transportation of dangerous goods by road into and from the ACT is currently made more complex by the application of two differing sets of legislative requirements regarding the packaging, labelling, documentation and handling of dangerous goods in transport. This bill will ensure that the ACT is no longer out of step with New South Wales and simplify matters for the road transport industry.
The federal government has introduced the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009 into the federal parliament. The commencement of the commonwealth’s repeal act and the new ACT act will be coordinated by both jurisdictions. The bill, when enacted, cannot be commenced in advance of the repeal of the commonwealth act because it will be overridden by the commonwealth act to the extent of the inconsistencies between the two pieces of legislation.
The National Transport Commission’s model legislation relates to the transport of dangerous goods by both road and rail. However, the bill is limited to the transport of dangerous goods by road. The rail aspects of the model legislation will be implemented as a second stage.
The ACT’s rail infrastructure is operated by the Rail Corporation of New South Wales under licences given by the territory to occupy land on which the ACT’s rail facilities are located. In practice, the ACT’s rail infrastructure is operated by Railcorp as part of its New South Wales rail network. Given this situation and the very small amount of rail infrastructure in the territory, discussions have been begun with the relevant New South Wales government agencies for them to undertake supervisory, investigative and enforcement functions in relation to the transport of dangerous goods by rail. It is proposed that the relevant New South Wales legislation will be applied as ACT laws to create a seamless legislative regime in relation to the operation of the ACT’s rail infrastructure.
At present the Dangerous Substances Act 2004, which imposes a range of safety duties on people transporting or who are in control of the transport of dangerous goods, applies to the transport of dangerous goods by rail. The main categories of dangerous goods that are routinely transported into the ACT are fuels in the form of
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