DPI UPDATE (Issue 19)
John Mitas, Operations Manager, DPI
I hope that you all had a safe and enjoyable end of year break and I look forward to working with you to improve industry compliance with safety and environmental standards.
The year ahead will challenge us to keep up with all the legislative changes. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 will come into effect on 1 July 2005. WorkSafe have scheduled a series of seminars in Melbourne and some regional centres. The review of the Extractive Industries Development Act is also scheduled for this year and the CMPA and other stakeholders will be provided with opportunities to have an input.
The Department’s audit and inspection program for 2004 has highlighted a number of common safety and environmental issues that we need to address. These include access and guarding issues on fixed plant and traffic management and roll-over with mobile plant. The issues that generate a lot of complaints and work for the Department are noise, dust and compliance with the approved workplan.
Compliance with advice and directions has been poor and in some instances the same issues appear in consecutive audit reports. The Department will escalate enforcement actions for non compliance with directions and notices this year.
Good environmental management which ensures that the impacts on your neighbours and the community are minimised, and shows a commitment to engage them and other stakeholders, will reduce the number of complaints from your operation, and your license to operate in the community is not jeopardised.
John Mitas, DPI
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