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 Page 2 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 3 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 4 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 5 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 6 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 7 Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 Contents 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 Page 8