Primary sector regulation: issues raised in the taskforce report

2. 
   PRIMARY SECTOR REGULATION: ISSUES RAISED IN THE TASKFORCE REPORT
   

The Commonwealth Department of Industry Tourism and Resources recently initiated a legislative project to significantly consolidate and streamline the regulations enabled by the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 (PSLA 67). This project responds to the findings of the Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business (the Banks Report 2006) regarding undue costs for business that arise in the implementation of policy through regulation and the mounting concerns from business at the growth of

regulation and its cumulative burdens.
The WA Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR), as the Department representing the Designated Authority (State Minister) in the joint administration of the PSLA 67 in the WA offshore area is fully committed to this process. DoIR is represented on all working groups which have been formed for this project under the auspices of the Upstream Petroleum Subcommittee (UPS). The UPS reports to the Ministerial Council on Mineral and Petroleum Resources via the Standing Committee of Officials.
The Taskforce was asked to identify and propose remedies where Australian Government regulation is 'unnecessarily burdensome', complex, redundant or duplicative. In relation to offshore petroleum legislation, the Banks Review recognised that regulations developed

under the PSLA 67 require management plans to be submitted to government to address objectives for safety, the environment, pipelines, diving safety, data and well operations. While industry supports objective-based regulations, it raised concerns that including similar information in multiple management plans results in additional time and cost burdens to business.

• Management of Safety on Offshore Facilities;

• Occupational Health and Safety;

• Diving Safety;

• Management of Environment;

• Pipelines;

• Datum;

• PSLA regulations;

• Data Management;

• Resource Management (forthcoming); and

• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) (forthcoming)
The majority of the Regulations are finalised or nearly finalised, along with supportive guidelines to assist industry’s understanding and interpretation of the Regulations. The Regulations have also been harmonised to ensure that a similar approach is used in each, such as the use of risk management plans and some alignment of reporting requirements.
The consolidation project is reviewing all current single-purpose regulations with a view to merge these into three sets of regulations responding to the three basic reasons to regulate - safety, environment and resource management.
This process will reduce the cost and time associated with meeting regulatory requirements through a reduction in overlap and duplication of documentation. The project will ensure that there is no duplication between the Act and the regulations and will seek to bridge any regulatory gaps.