Monday, June 24, 2024

ONRSR welcomes outcome of national law review

The review came some 11 years after RSNL was first introduced and ONRSR opened its doors as Australia’s first national rail safety regulator. With a focus on how the law could best position ONRSR to deliver on its regulatory functions efficiently, and how it could support the National Rail Action Plan, the final report concluded that:

“The Rail Safety National Law is generally working well and is considered to be a vast improvement from previous regimes, even though numerous improvement opportunities have been identified.”

The report goes on to list some 25 recommendations including:

• Increased transparency around ONRSR regulatory activities 
• Increased safety promotion and education function based on national data insights 
• A more proactive role for ONRSR in achieving interoperability outcomes and promoting innovation and productivity across the national rail network (where these can be balanced against delivery of safety improvements) 
• Approved Code of Practice outlining evidence to demonstrate what meaningful consultation with unions and workers looks like  
• ONRSR be granted additional powers to compel parties to enter into safety interface agreements (especially around Level Crossings) and developing an Approved Code of Practice to outline the requirements of effective agreements.  

ONRSR will now consider the full report on legislative reform and will work with the NTC and other stakeholders to establish a detailed implementation plan based on the high-level implementation plan the NTC included in the material it has released.