The RSHLA Act 2024

More protection for Queensland’s resources workers’ safety and health

The Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (the Act) has introduced preventative and proactive reforms to improve the Queensland resources sector’s safety and health performance to reduce the occurrence of fatalities and serious accidents.

The reforms were informed by:

a Review of all fatal accidents in Queensland’s mines and quarries from 2000 to 2019 (Brady Review)
the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry finalised in May 2021
the Queensland Government’s mining industry-wide safety resets in 2019 and 2021.

Notably, the package of reforms implements the final recommendations for Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) from the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry which investigated the Grosvenor mine explosion and the coronial inquest into the death of Gareth Dodunski.

The key reform areas under the Act aim to:

facilitate high reliability organisation behaviours within the resources sector
modernise regulatory enforcement powers
ensure Queensland’s resources safety and health legislation is contemporary and effective.

The changes will begin over the next five years to allow industry implementation.

To support the changes to the resources safety Acts, the Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Regulation 2024 amends the resources safety Regulations with those changes commencing at the same time as the changes under the resources safety Acts.

Outlined below is a summary of the main changes based on the key reform areas.

For more information on the changes, please contact us.

Changes commencing on 1 September 2024

Facilitating the growth of high-reliability organisational behaviour

A compliance and enforcement framework has been introduced for continuing professional development (CPD) for those in safety critical roles. CPD will be required in key areas including mining methods, emergency management and leadership, risk management, and legislation changes.
The provisions relating to CPD commence on 1 September 2024 with existing certificates of competency holders required to hold the requisite CPD from 10 June 2025.
A strong and open reporting culture contributes to building a high reliability organisation culture and improves safety. Under-reporting of safety and health incidents was identified as a key issue in the Brady Review where the importance of a strong and open reporting culture to improve safety was stressed.
The legislative changes improve and optimise reporting of incidents, supported by the new electronic reporting system being progressively rolled-out by RSHQ, and facilitate information sharing.
Example of new and updated guidance material:
- The Reporting incidents and disease guidance provides an overview of the current notification requirements under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999, the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (MQSHA) and Explosives Act 1999.
- Petroleum & Gas Inspectorate –
  - updated - report a gas related incident or injury
  - updated - Guideline for reporting prescribed incidents.
More guidance material is being developed and will be progressively published.
If you have an incident to notify, please use your existing process for now. Changes will be rolled out in the coming months.
Quick links for incident reporting
- Coal Inspectorate, Mineral Mines and Quarries Inspectorate & Explosives Inspectorate - Notification of an incident
- Petroleum and Gas Inspectorate – Reporting prescribed incidents
The legislative changes simplify and clarify the existing legislative provisions regarding publishing safety information. The publication power is not limited to information concerning enforcement action but extends to statistical and factual information about serious accidents and high potential incidents (HPIs) to facilitate information sharing.
The Brady review stressed the importance of RSHQ facilitating the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data from industry to inform safety learnings, to prevent harm, to educate industry and to support industry to become high-reliability organisations.
A factsheet on publishing information Publishing information Fact Sheet has been developed by RSHQ and is available here.
Due to changes to the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, the prescribed list of principal hazard management plans (PHMPs) for underground coal mines in section 149 has been expanded to require additional PHMPs, making the list more consistent with New South Wales’ list of prescribed principal hazards.
In addition, new section 102A prescribes PHMPs for surface coal mines.
The changes to the PHMP requirements have a 12-month transition period so that the additional PHMPs must be part of the mine’s safety and health management system by 1 September 2025.

Modern regulatory enforcement

Enforceable undertakings have been introduced, a first for the Queensland resources sector. An enforceable undertaking is an alternative to prosecution and allows the regulator to accept an undertaking from individuals and companies where they have breached the safety and health legislation, but not in matters involving workplace deaths.
More information about enforceable undertakings, including the Guidance: Enforceable Undertakings, and the updated RSHQ Compliance and Enforcement Policy can be found here.
As a key compliance and enforcement tool used by RSHQ, refining and improving the directive powers under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (CMSHA) and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (MQSHA) and the Explosives Act 1999 ensures directives can be flexibly applied to risk and provide greater legislative certainty.
For the CMSHA and MQSHA, the changes provide greater legislative certainty around the form and operation of directives including the grounds for giving a directive, what is required of the recipient to fulfil a directive, and clarity around how long a directive stays in effect. The changes also streamline existing directives to provide a simpler directive framework.
The changes to the Explosives Act ensure the directive power can also be used proactively where an inspector reasonably suspects a person is involved in an activity that is likely to result in a contravention of the Explosives Act. This is consistent with the proactive approach in the other resources safety Acts.
A fact sheet on giving a directive when ‘belief risk may reach an unacceptable level’ has been developed by RSHQ.

Contemporary legislation

The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 now include a broad definition of contractor, which includes all types of employment arrangements including a person contracted to carry out work at a mine, provide a service to a mine, and a person contracted to provide workers to a mine including, for example, a labour hire agency.
The site senior executive (SSE) is also required to report the occurrence of injury, high potential incidents or proposed changes at the mine that may affect the safety and health of contractors, to the agency that supplied those workers.
The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (CMSHA) and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 have been amended to clarify the role of remote operating centre (ROC) workers and ensure that the safety and health management system (SHMS) addresses risks from ROCs and the remote operation of plant and equipment.
While the provisions relating to ROCs commence on 1 September 2024, the requirements regarding induction and training for operational ROC workers, and for ROCs to be included in the SHMS, begin on 1 March 2025.
The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999now require a site senior executive (SSE) for a mine to be located at or near the mine site when performing their duties, unless they are temporarily absent, provided that the absence is for not more than 14 days.
RSHQ’s petroleum and gas inspectors will now be able to compel relevant people to give information or answer questions.
This legislative change to the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 implements the Coroners Court of Queensland’s recommendation from the findings of the inquest into the death of Gareth Leo Dodunski (delivered on 31 August 2023) and ensures that inspectors and authorised officers can effectively investigate incidents, and require answers or information, with appropriate safeguards for individuals who provide such information.

Changes commencing on 1 June 2025

Critical controls aim to address serious risks on mine sites. Previously, these controls have been voluntarily applied across industry. The new laws will require mine and quarry sites to incorporate critical controls as part of the mine’s safety and health management systems.
These new provisions will commence on 1 June 2025 and industry will have until 1 June 2026 to become compliant.
More information about these changes will be provided in the coming months.
Additional competencies for key safety critical roles in coal mines will be required for mechanical and engineering managers and surface mine managers. These strengthened competencies, issued by the Board of Examiners, aim to ensure that those appointed to these positions working at the operational level of coal mines in complex and hazardous coal mining operations have sufficient experience, knowledge and understanding of safety and health obligations.
There will be a lengthy transitional period from 1 June 2025 to enable industry workers to obtain the new competencies and associated practicing certificate by 1 June 2030.
More information about these changes will be provided in the coming months.