Peak bodies in cautious welcome to centralised transport regulations

 They were even given a date.
But those bodies will be fearful of the devils in the details and so it was no surprise that the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) called for extensive consultation to ensure the policy’s success. Trust from the state level appears to be in short supply.
They were responding to the recommendation that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agree to single national regulators covering rail safety, maritime safety and heavy vehicles and a national investigator for rail accidents, with full implementation by 2013.
The road freight regulator would be responsible for all heavy vehicles above 4.5 tonnes.
“National regulations and a single national regulator have the potential to be an essential safety initiative with efficiency improvements for regulators and operators,” ATA chairman Trevor Martyn said.
On safety, the ATA expected the plan to deliver:
• easier-to-understand laws and a better knowledge of the rules within industry, leading to greater compliance;
• a seamless chain of responsibility laws which were fully operational across borders;
• more consistent on-road enforcement;
• the introduction of modern, safer vehicle configurations; and
• more opportunity for industry leadership in adopting leading-edge safety aids.
“It also needs to be understood that many of the benefits of a single national regulator and a national body of regulations will only emerge when safer, high-productivity truck combinations such as B-doubles and B-triples can be used on more of the road network,” Mr Martyn said
The ARA said it was crucial that the underpinning “law” was the uniform national rail safety legislation already developed by the National Transport Commission (NTC), approved by ATC and supported by industry and not a single state’s version of this legislation, the ARA said.
The industry believed full rail reform implementation could be achieved by January 1, 2012 at the latest and that 2013 gave the states “far too long”.
NTC chief executive Nick Dimopoulos also welcomed the ministers’ decision as a boost for safety and the economy and a major step toward a “genuine national market in transport”.
“Dealing with a single body administering one set of regulations and processes will reduce industry compliance costs and allow rail operators to grow their business safely,” Mr Dimopoulos said.
The ATC agreed to propose to COAG that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority become the national regulator of all commercial vessels operating in Australian waters and agreed to recommend the creation of a national rail safety regulator, with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to become the preferred investigator of rail accidents.
ATC ministers also approved the revised National Maritime Place of Refuge Guidelines, which reflect changes involving the National Maritime Emergency Response Arrangements.