Overview: Maritime, land, and air safety regulation in Australia
Author: Trusted Autonomous SystemsPublished: 28/06/2022Category: Body of KnowledgeLast updated: 16/08/2022
Overview: Maritime, land, and air safety regulation in Australia
In Australia, it is accepted that government has a role in encouraging and informing safe practices as well as ensuring that safety standards are not compromised by commercial pressures. At the same time, regulation should achieve safety objectives while minimising compliance costs and barriers to innovation, the latter being key to productivity growth and improved living standards.1
It is important to set a regulatory approach suited to the structure of the industry and the nature of its safety risks. Striking the right balance between prescription and flexibility can not only help to minimise compliance costs without diminishing safety, but also potentially improve the management of safety risks overall.
Regulation of autonomous systems
Regulation of autonomous systems in Australia is split across national, state, and territory governments. It is important to understand which parts of government are responsible for the regulation of each domain. This overview considers this from the perspective of safety regulation.
Regulation includes any laws or government enforced rules where there is an expectation of compliance. In Australia, regulation is made at federal level and state and territory level in the form of primary and delegated legislation, and by local government as regulations and by-laws.
Legislation is made by federal, state and territory parliaments, and administered by departments and/or statutory authorities. Statutory authorities such as AMSA, CASA and the NHVR do not ‘own’ legislation and cannot make changes to it on their own initiative, nor can the Australian Defence Force. They have varying abilities to make delegated legislation, standards, codes of practice, guidance, manuals, policies and guidance.
It is important to understand which parts of the Australian, state and territory governments is responsible for the regulation of each domain. As a result of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Seamless National Economy initiatives, the objects of safety regulation expanded to include considerations around productivity and innovation. A key element of these initiatives included establishing a single national regulator for each of the maritime, heavy vehicle and rail sectors. Consequently, there has been significant harmonisation of safety regulation in Australia, with the role of individual state and territory regulatory regimes diminished.
However, because of constitutional and other related issues, most revolve around cooperative schemes and retention of some key regulatory functions by states and territories. This means that frequent discussion and negotiation between the Australian, state and territory governments is required in relation to the content and application of the legislative, regulatory, standard and code of practice level. Given this, the Council of Australian Government framework has been used to encourage the adoption of a uniform approach centred on risk-based, data-led regulation.[1]
| Domain | Scheme owner | Regulator | Type of legislation | |
| Air domain | Australian federal government is responsible for safety in the air domain. | Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulates the operation of Australian aircraft and all non-State aircraft2 operations within Australian territory. The safety of Australian state aircraft operations is a matter for the Defence Aviation Safety Authority (DASA) within Defence. | Commonwealth law passed by the Australian Parliament. | |
| Maritime domain | Australian federal government is responsible for safety in the maritime domain for registered Australian vessels, domestic commercial vessels and foreign vessels. | State and Territory governments still retain a number of powers in relation to certain ancillary matters, including marine pollution and waterways management State and Territory governments generally remain responsible for recreational vessels. | Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) administers legislation in this respect. Maritime safety on defence vessels is a matter for the Royal Australian Navy, the Office of the Defence Seaworthiness Regulator (ODSwR) and the Australian Naval Classification Authority (ANCA) within Defence. | Commonwealth law passed by the Australian Parliament *# *States and territories previously regulated most domestic commercial vessels. The Commonwealth assumed responsibility for this function through a cooperative scheme enshrined in Commonwealth legislation. All states and territories must agree, through the Council of Australian Government, to changes to the legislation and regulations. #Applies to extent of constitutional reach – states and territories have to pass legislation to ‘apply’ this legislation to cover any gaps. |
| Land domain | State and Territory governments are responsible for light vehicle safety, and for driver licensing State and Territory governments retain responsibility for workplace health and safety legislation State and Territory governments retain oversight of rail and heavy vehicle safety through applied law schemes | Rail and heavy vehicle regulation largely harmonised through establishment of single national regulators However, use of applied legislation means that it has to be passed by each jurisdiction, rather than Commonwealth legislation. | Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) is responsible for rail safety regulation through an applied law scheme National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is responsible for heavy vehicle regulation through an applied law scheme | Light vehicle: State and Territory legislation Rail and heavy vehicle: State and Territory applied law. An ‘applied law scheme’ is a type of cooperative legislative scheme in which one ‘host’ jurisdiction enacts a model law which is then ‘picked up’ or ‘applied’ by another jurisdiction or group of jurisdictions. Jurisdictions may include location ‘derogations’ . |
| All domains | The Australian Communications and Media Authority regulates communications in Australia. This includes management of electromagnetic spectrum. | |||