The Chair of the Ministerial Council on Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Martin Ferguson AM MP, has announced actions to increase the safety of Australia’s mining industry and to reform regulation of the minerals and petroleum sectors.
The Council met for the 12th time in Melbourne on Friday to discuss important issues facing Australia’s minerals and petroleum sectors.
“We had a full agenda covering issues from land access and water use, to carbon capture and storage, to employment in the resources sector," Minister Ferguson said.
"As always the discussion was both robust and constructive leading to a range of important agreements in support of our collective interests.
"In July last year we unanimously agreed that safety performance must be improved through the National Mine Safety Framework (NMSF).
"At Friday’s meeting my state and territory counterparts gave their agreement to the proposal that drafting instructions prepared by the tripartite NMSF Steering Group, chaired by the Hon Clive Brown, should form part of Model Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation being developed through the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council.
“The Council endorsed a process for developing uniform provisions for mining-specific health and safety issues not addressed under WHS laws to provide a nationally consistent approach to mine safety.”
On the issue of offshore petroleum safety, Minister Ferguson advised that a draft formal response has been released to the two reports of the 2009 Offshore Petroleum Safety Regulatory Inquiry and the 2008 NOPSA Operational Activities Review shortly and the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism will be consulting with stakeholders in formulating the Government's final formal response.
It was agreed that the five remaining Productivity Commission recommendations would be discussed following the report of the Montara Commission of Inquiry to the Minister for Resources and Energy in mid June.
“While the Council has not agreed to all of the Productivity Commissions recommendations, it had agreed to 25 of the 30, showing that there is close cooperation by Ministers on these nationally important issues," Minister Ferguson said.
Other matters considered by the Council included: progress on the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill; natural gas supply; abandoned mine strategies; and resource reporting.
Minister Ferguson also took the opportunity to release the Australian Government's response to the Review of Regulatory Efficiency in Uranium Mining.
"This review, undertaken by Deloittes, contains some challenging recommendations," Minister Ferguson said.
"We have taken on board the results and provided a response to each of the recommendations aimed at simplifying the regulatory regime for uranium mining in Australia.
“Implementation of initiatives agreed to in the Government response will provide clarity and simplify the regulatory regime in place, while continuing to ensure the highest standards and provide the firm footing the industry needs to meet its full potential.”
The Government response has been developed in consultation with the South Australian, Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments.
The response is available online at www.ret.gov.au
The communiqué from Friday’s meeting is available at here.