Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999

214 Pages·2017·1.61 MB·English

Queensland
Coal Mining Safety and Health
Act 1999
Current as at 1 March 2017
Queensland
Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999
Contents
Page
Part 1 Preliminary
Division 1 Introduction
1 Short title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Commencement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Division 2 Operation of Act
3 Act binds all persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4 What does this Act apply to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5 Who does this Act apply to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Division 3 Objects of Act
6 Objects of Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7 How objects are to be achieved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Division 4 Interpretation
8 Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9 Meaning of coal mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10 Meaning of on-site activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
11 Meaning of safety and health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
12 Meaning of competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
13 Meaning of consultation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
14 Meaning of standard operating procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
15 Meaning of accident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
16 Meaning of serious accident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
17 Meaning of high potential incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
18 Meaning of risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
19 Meaning of hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
20 Meaning of principal hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
21 Meaning of coal mine operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
22 Meaning of geographically separated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999
Contents
23 Meaning of physical overlapping of coal mining operations . . . . 23
24 When is a coal mine operator not in control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
25 Meaning of site senior executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
26 Meaning of supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
27 Meaning of industry safety and health representative . . . . . . . . . 25
28 Meaning of site safety and health representative . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Part 2 The control and management of risk and other basic concepts
Division 1 Control and management of risk
29 What is an acceptable level of risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
30 How is an acceptable level of risk achieved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
31 What happens if the level of risk is unacceptable . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Division 2 Cooperation
32 Cooperation to achieve objects of Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Part 3 Safety and health obligations
Division 1 Preliminary
33 Obligations for safety and health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
34 Discharge of obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
35 Person may owe obligations in more than 1 capacity . . . . . . . . . 29
36 Person not relieved of obligations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
37 How obligation can be discharged if regulation or recognised standard
made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
38 How obligations can be discharged if no regulation or recognised
standard made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Division 2 Generally applicable safety and health obligations of persons
39 Obligations of persons generally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Division 3 Obligations of holders, coal mine operators, site senior executives
and others
40 Obligations of holders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
41 Obligations of coal mine operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
42 Obligations of site senior executive for coal mine . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
43 Obligations of contractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
44 Obligations of designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plant
etc. for use at coal mines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
45 Obligations of erectors and installers of plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
45A Obligations of designers, constructors and erectors of earthworks 37
46 Obligations of manufacturers, importers and suppliers of substances for
use at coal mines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
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47 Obligation of provider of services at coal mines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Division 4 Defences
48 Defences for div 2 or 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Part 4 Provisions about the operation of coal mines
Division 1 Notices about coal mines
49 Notices by holder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
50 Notices by coal mine operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
51 Notice of management structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
52 Notice about exploration activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
52A Notice about underground gasification activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Division 2 Management of coal mines
53 Appointment of coal mine operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
54 Appointment of site senior executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
55 Management structure for safe operations at coal mines . . . . . . 43
56 Competencies of supervisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
57 Appointment of another site senior executive during temporary absence
44
58 Other appointments during absences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
59 Additional requirements for management of surface mines . . . . 45
60 Additional requirements for management of underground mines 45
61 Appointment of ventilation officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Division 3 Safety and health management systems
62 Safety and health management system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
62A Additional requirement for coal mining operation for incidental coal seam
gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
63 Principal hazard management plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
64 Review of principal hazard management plans and standard operating
procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Division 3A Joint interaction management plans for overlapping resource
authorities
64C Application of div 3A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
64D Definitions for div 3A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
64E Requirement for joint interaction management plan . . . . . . . . . . 52
64F Content of joint interaction management plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
64G Notification of making of joint interaction management plan . . . . 55
64H Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
64I Availability of joint interaction management plan . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
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Division 4 Records and reporting
65 Changes in management structure to be reported to an inspector 57
66 Management structure to be recorded in the mine record . . . . . 58
67 Plans of coal mine workings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
68 Mine record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
69 Display of reports and directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
69A Training and assessment record check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Division 5 Protection of abandoned coal mines
70 Responsibility for protecting abandoned coal mines . . . . . . . . . . 62
Part 5 Recognised standards
71 Purpose of recognised standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
72 Recognised standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
73 Use of recognised standards in proceedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Part 5A Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health
Division 1 Establishment and appointment of commissioner
73A Appointment of commissioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
73B Qualifications for appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
73BA Acting commissioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
73C Commissioner’s functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
73D Commissioner’s powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Division 2 Report by commissioner
73E Annual report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Part 6 Industry consultative arrangements
Division 1 Purposes of part
74 Purposes of pt 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Division 2 Coal mining safety and health advisory committee and its functions
75 Coal mining safety and health advisory committee . . . . . . . . . . . 67
76 Functions of committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
77 Annual report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Division 3 Membership and conduct of committee proceedings
78 Membership of committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
79 Organisations to submit names to Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
80 Appointment of members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
81 Duration of appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
82 Conditions of appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
83 Member ceasing as member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
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83A Substitute members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
84 Times and places of committee meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
85 Presiding at meetings of the committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
86 Quorum and voting at meetings of the committee . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
87 Recommendation to Minister if vote not unanimous . . . . . . . . . . 72
88 Taking part in meetings by telephone etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
89 Resolutions without meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
90 Minutes by the committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
91 Subcommittees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Part 7 Site safety and health representatives
Division 1 Purposes of part
92 Purposes of pt 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Division 2 Site safety and health representatives
93 Election of site safety and health representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
94 Further election if site safety and health representative not available 74
95 Person must be qualified to act as site safety and health representative
75
96 Ceasing to be a site safety and health representative . . . . . . . . 75
97 Removal from office by Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
98 Election after removal from office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
99 Functions of site safety and health representatives . . . . . . . . . . 76
100 Powers of site safety and health representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
101 Stopping of operations by site safety and health representatives 78
102 Effect of report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
103 Site senior executive not to restart operations until risk at an acceptable
level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
104 Site safety and health representative not to unnecessarily impede
production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
105 Protection of site safety and health representatives performing functions
79
106 Site senior executive to tell site safety and health representatives about
certain things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
107 Site senior executive to display identity of site safety and health
representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Part 8 Industry safety and health representatives
Division 1 Purposes of part
108 Purposes of pt 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Division 2 Industry safety and health representatives
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109 Appointment of industry safety and health representatives . . . . . 81
110 Industry safety and health representative to work full-time . . . . . 81
111 Funding of industry safety and health representative . . . . . . . . . 82
112 Termination of appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
113 Appointment after termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
114 Filling of temporary vacancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
115 Vacancy generally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
116 Persons not to pretend to be industry safety and health representatives
if not appointed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
117 Industry safety and health representative restricted to safety and health
purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
118 Functions of industry safety and health representatives . . . . . . . 83
119 Powers of industry safety and health representatives . . . . . . . . . 84
120 Industry safety and health representative not to unnecessarily impede
production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
121 Inadequate or ineffective safety and health management systems 85
122 Identity cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
123 Failure to return identity card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
124 Production or display of identity card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Part 9 Inspectors and other officers and directives
Division 1 Inspectors and inspection officers
125 Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
126 Qualifications for appointment as inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
127 Qualifications for appointment as inspection officer . . . . . . . . . . 87
127A Appointment conditions and limit on powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
128 Functions of inspectors and inspection officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
129 Further functions of inspectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Division 2 Authorised officers
129A Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
129B Qualifications for appointment as authorised officer . . . . . . . . . . 89
129C Appointment conditions and limit on functions and powers . . . . . 90
129D Functions of authorised officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
129E Information about functions and powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Division 3 Identity cards for inspectors, inspection officers and authorised
officers
130 Identity cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
131 Failure to return identity card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
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132 Production or display of identity card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Division 4 Powers of inspectors, inspection officers and authorised officers
Subdivision 1 Preliminary
132A Definition for div 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Subdivision 2 Power to enter places
133 Entry to places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Subdivision 3 Procedure for entry
134 Consent to entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
135 Application for warrant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
136 Issue of warrant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
137 Special warrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
138 Warrants—procedure before entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Subdivision 4 General powers
139 General powers after entering coal mine or other places . . . . . . 98
140 Failure to help officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
141 Failure to answer questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
142 Site senior executive must help officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Subdivision 5 Power to seize evidence
143 Seizing evidence at coal mine or other place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
144 Securing things after seizure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
145 Tampering with things subject to seizure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
146 Powers to support seizure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
147 Receipts to be given on seizure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
148 Forfeiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
149 Return of seized things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
150 Access to things that have been seized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Subdivision 6 Power to stop and secure plant and equipment
151 Officer may stop and secure plant and equipment . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Subdivision 7 Power to obtain information
152 Power to require name and address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
153 Failure to give name or address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
154 Power to require production of documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
155 Failure to produce document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
156 Failure to certify copy of document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
157 Power to require attendance of persons before an officer to answer
questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
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158 Failure to comply with requirement about attendance . . . . . . . . . 107
159 Use of particular evidence in proceedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Subdivision 8 Additional powers of chief inspector
160 Additional powers of chief inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Division 5 Directives by inspectors, inspection officers and industry safety
and health representatives
Subdivision 1 Power to give and way of giving directives
161 Directive may be given . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
162 How directive is given . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
163 How directive is given for ss 166, 167 and 170 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Subdivision 2 Matters for which directives may be given
164 Directive to ensure coal mine worker competent . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
165 Directive to carry out test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
166 Directive to reduce risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
167 Directive to suspend operations for unacceptable level of risk . . 110
168 Directive to review safety and health management system and principal
hazard management plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
169 Directive to suspend operations for ineffective safety and health
management system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
170 Directive to isolate site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
171 Directive about separate part of the mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
172 Directive to provide independent engineering study . . . . . . . . . . 112
Subdivision 3 Recording of directives and other matters
173 Records must be kept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
174 Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Subdivision 4 Review of directives
175 Application for review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
176 Procedure for review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
177 Review of directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
178 Stay of operation of directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Division 6 General enforcement offences
179 False or misleading statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
180 False or misleading documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
181 Obstructing inspectors, officers or industry safety and health
representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Part 10 Board of examiners
Division 1 Purposes of part
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