Legislative changes to Australia’s offshore safety regime will improve safety in our offshore petroleum industry.
The Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Act 2024 amends the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. It implements the outcomes of our review of the safety regime for offshore oil and gas workers in Commonwealth waters.
The amendments will drive greater alignment between Australia’s offshore petroleum safety regime and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. This will support industry and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) to ensure the ongoing health and safety of workers.
The changes to the safety regime will take effect in mid-2025.
The key safety measures in this Act:
- Strengthen the role of health and safety representatives through better access to training.
- Allow health and safety representatives to request reviews of safety management-related documents.
- Enhance workers’ health and wellbeing by protecting them against discrimination and coercion.
- Modernise diving legislation to improve health and safety compliance in diving operations.
- Ensure that where the titleholder appoints a separate operator, that operator is able to carry out their duties under the Act and regulations.
- Strengthen notification and reporting requirements to improve death and serious injury notifications.
- Introduce a vessel activity notification scheme to ensure that the regulator knows when vessels enter and leave the offshore regime.
We worked closely with stakeholders throughout the review and have notified them of the changes.
We’ll continue to implement the outcomes of our review, and will consult on draft regulations to support the Act soon.