Bills

Statutes Amendment (Electricity and Gas) Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of the Legislative Council's amendments.

(Continued from 28 March 2017.)

Amendment No. 1:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendment No. 1 be disagreed to.

The government initially opposed this amendment after taking advice on the proposed requirements from SAPN. SAPN had previously advised that a requirement to provide advance notice of an inspection of a property owned in two months was unduly restrictive. The initial time frames were considered to be unworkable due to various factors beyond SAPN's control that may affect the inspection work and cause unforeseeable delays with severe weather conditions (fire danger season) being a dominant factor.

Such delays raised concern that the fire danger season could be in operation before SAPN had the chance to adequately inspect power lines to proactively assess any potential fire danger and maintain public safety. However, in subsequent discussions with SAPN, SAPN acknowledged community concerns and endeavoured to work with all stakeholders to find a suitable balance between the requirements to inspect their assets in an efficient manner and the expectation of landowners to exercise control over their property.

SAPN has subsequently advised they consider the compromise of one month's notice period for an inspection to occur will strike an acceptable balance. SAPN has also agreed to publish at least one month before a prescribed notice in a newspaper circulating within that particular area and conducting the inspection during the specified time period outlined in the prescribed notice. This is in lieu of the original amendment proposed by Mr Lucas to publish notices in two separate newspapers and broadcast on two separate radio stations within the area of council, which was deemed to be excessively onerous.

I am advised that SAPN officers always exercise a high degree of common sense and provide clear information to a home owner prior to entering onto premises. Also, it is most likely that SAPN officers would undertake this work during ordinary business hours. These safeguards are intended to strike the right balance between the maintenance of important property rights and the necessity to ensure that vegetation is well maintained ahead of the summer bushfire season. On that basis, we are prepared to accept the amendment, although my last-minute plea is that opposition not proceed, but if they insist, the government will accept.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I move the following alternative amendment:

Amendment No 1—

Page 7, lines 10 to 32—Delete the clause and substitute:

11—Amendment of section 48—Entry for purposes related to infrastructure

(1) Section 48—after subsection (2) insert:

(2a) Despite subsection (2), an electricity officer may exercise a power of entry referred to in that subsection without giving notice in accordance with subsection (2) in relation to electricity infrastructure situated on land that is in the area of a council and in the bushfire risk area if—

(a) the purpose of the entry is to conduct an inspection of the infrastructure; and

(b) —

(i) the electricity entity gives reasonable written notice of the date and time of the proposed entry to the occupier of the land; or

(ii) if it is not reasonably practicable for the electricity entity to give notice in accordance with subparagraph (i), the electricity entity—

(A) publishes, at least 1 month before the proposed inspection of infrastructure in the area of the council, a prescribed notice in a newspaper circulating within that area; and

(B) conducts the inspection during the period specified in the prescribed notice.

(2) Section 48—after subsection (7) insert:

(8) In this section—

prescribed notice, in relation to an inspection of electricity infrastructure by an electricity entity in the area of a council, means a notice that specifies the period (of up to 1 month) during which the entity proposes to inspect its infrastructure in the area.

Let me say at the outset that I am very grateful to members of the Legislative Council who supported the amendment, which was passed, dealing with this issue. I am very grateful that they supported that amendment. I have had discussions with SAPN and, while they would have liked, as the minister has made clear he would like, to have no change to the initial bill in this regard, I was not prepared to agree to that. But I can happily say that representatives of SAPN and I have come to an agreement.

I have that agreement very clearly from them—and it has been passed on to the government as well—that they are comfortable with this amendment. It is very important that land occupiers are given advance warning when SAPN wants to come onto their property for inspections. I think it is perfectly fair that they get that warning. I accept that what I initially asked for would have been onerous for SAPN to implement. It would not have been an unreasonable level of advice for the land occupiers to receive but it would have been more difficult than I anticipated for SAPN to implement.

We have come to an agreement that they will do one of two things: they will either give direct advice to individual land occupiers in advance of an intention to enter their property for inspection or they will give them reasonable notice and advice of exactly when they plan to come. If that is not possible, they will give at least one month's notice of a subsequent one-month window when they would enter those properties.

For your benefit, Deputy Speaker, and for the benefit of those who might be following this, the reason we have both those opportunities in there is that we want what we are deciding here in this chamber today—which, hopefully, will be supported in the other chamber shortly—not to need change for quite a long time. Ideally, we want all land occupiers to receive advice, but right now SAPN is not able to provide that advice directly. They have a database that has records of meters on properties, but the owners of those meters are not necessarily the land occupiers.

You can imagine a situation where you have a farm, and someone lives on that farm and they have a meter registered in their name. They live in the farmhouse, but they lease all the working land out to someone else. It is actually that other land occupier who needs to receive that advice, not the person who lives in the house but who no longer does the farming. We hope that one day technology will allow us to do that, and we hope that SAPN's database will improve so that it can be done, but until that time landholders and land occupiers will receive one month's notice in advance through the relevant local newspaper.

The SPEAKER: If this question is agreed to, amendment No. 1 of the Legislative Council will be negatived and the alternative amendment proposed by the member for Stuart will be inserted in lieu thereof, so we are voting to disagree with amendment No. 1 of the Legislative Council and insert the member for Stuart's amendment.

Motion carried.

Amendments Nos 2 to 15:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments Nos 2 to 15 be agreed to.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 15:48 to 17:00.

Sitting extended beyond 17:00 on motion of Hon. S.C. Mullighan.