National Mine Safety Framework: implementation report

Date published:
1 June 2009

The National Mine Safety Framework (NMSF) was an initiative of the COAG Energy Council. It aimed to improve the safety of mining workers through consistent and efficient occupational health and safety regulations.

The NMSF’s seven strategies focused on key areas where consistency across each state or territory would most benefit the industry. These were:

  • nationally consistent legislation
  • competency support
  • compliance support
  • a nationally coordinated protocol on enforcement
  • consistent and reliable data collection and analysis
  • effective consultation mechanisms
  • a collaborative approach to research

Nationally consistent mine safety legislation

The success of these strategies depend on developing nationally consistent mine safety legislation. This report outlines a set of drafting instructions and example clauses. Each state or territory could use these when amending their existing mine safety legislation or regulations to support a nationally consistent approach.

Safe Work Australia integrated this work into developing new model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws. This started in April 2008 with the National Review into Model Occupational Health and Safety Laws.

National Mine Safety Database

The National Mine Safety Database (NMSD) provided a mining industry data set used to collect and analyse uniform data across each state or territory.

The members of the Conference of Chief Inspectors of Mines contributed to the NMSF strategies. In 2018 they agreed to decommission the NMSD as the model in operation was not technically and legislatively feasible.