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General Meeting of Members

By on August 6, 2019

CMPA Secretariat reports on the general meeting held in Tullamarine for CMPA members.

The General Meeting was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 at the Quality Hotel Melbourne Airport Tullamarine commencing at 5.00pm. It was advertised as an important meeting to provide your input into the progress of implementation of recommendations from the review of Earth Resources Regulation (ERR) which will be delivered to the Minister for Resources via the Commissioner for Better Regulation.

There was approximately 27 people in attendance. Many thanks to our sponsor CDE Global Australia Pty Ltd who provided an insight into their global involvement in sand wash plants and waste recycling plants. As well as new combo plants involved with manufactured sand.

Presentations were made by:

Commissioner for Better Regulation and Red Tape Commissioner, Anna Cronin, who gave a presentation on “Getting the Groundwork Right” Update on the second six-monthly implementation review. The Minister for Resources has asked the Commissioner to undertake a second six-monthly review of the implementation of the Getting the Groundwork Right report.

She has met with key industry representative bodies to seek their feedback and have spoken with Earth Resources Regulation (ERR) and senior DJPR staff and submitted her report to the Minister for Resources on 31 May 2019. The General Meeting was also an opportunity for CMPA Members to provide feedback.

Some of the feedback included:

  • Resources are not being secured;
  • There needs to be changes to the MRSD Act and the Planning and Environment Act 1987;
  • There is still uncertainty in obtaining approvals which prevents long term planning for greenfield sites;
  • Native Vegetation is still creating uncertainty in securing resources;
  • ERR’s 2017/18 Statistical Report was incorrect;
  • CMPA unable to obtain historical work plan approvals data due to low staffing issues in ERR;
  • The annual tonnages of construction materials approved per annum need to be published as a key performance indicator of ERR.
  • The ERR approvals backlog has only been improved due to refusals or seeking further information from the proponent;
  • Access to senior ERR staff has improved, but there are still significant knowledge gaps across ERR;
  • Industry is yet to see significant benefits of the changes to RRAM;
  • ERR should do more to co-ordinate approvals with other regulators;
  • The planning practice note is inadequate and does not deliver on the Joint Ministerial Statement commitments;

On a positive note the notification pathway is emerging as a useful tool in comparison to work plan variations.

As ever, the CMPA much appreciates the support for the extractive industry and the willingness to engage with the industry by the Commissioner.

Improving future compliance by how we respond to past non-compliance was presented by Russell Greenland, Manager – TSS Metro – VicRoads. Russell provided an insight on the methods used to regulate heavy vehicle drivers and operators in relation to the Heavy Vehicle National Law.

The scale of enforcement with limited resources will always be an issue considering Victoria has 215,000 heavy vehicles registered doing about 47.3 million heavy vehicle trips per year. The chances of being intercepted or infringed by VicRoads are less than 1% or once every 6-8 years but the consequences of detection and enforcement for breaking the law can have an affect on your ability as a driver to be employed. As an operator it
could affect your reputation, ability to get contracts which affects your future income.

There is a more streamlined focus on the use of digital sources within vehicles and on the road network to improve driver and operator behaviour. An increase in monitoring cameras with automated number plate recognition and Weigh in Motion (WIM) detectors and Intelligent Access Program (IAP) are used and shared by NHVR, VicPol and other regulators. They know who they are looking for and where and when they travel.

The changes to CoR 2018 laws were discussed including primary duties of all parties, what is reasonably practicable when it comes to the likelihood of a safety risk or damage to infrastructure and or harm as a result of risk or damage. As well as sanctions imposed on drivers and operators based on category 1 to 3 offences.

The final part of the presentation focussed on the classes of heavy vehicles and mass limits considering different axle groups and truck configurations.

Many thanks to all the speakers who generated much interest in their presentations from the audience.

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