Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999

214 Pages·2016·1.61 MB·English

Queensland
Coal Mining Safety and Health
Act 1999
Current as at 27 September 2016
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
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Division 2 Industry safety and health representatives
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
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131 Failure to return identity card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
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
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questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
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
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