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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-20 Daily Xml
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Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 18 October 2022.)

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (16:51): I rise to speak in support of the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill. The eastern boundary of my electorate abuts the Adelaide to Tarcoola railway line, which makes it clear that railways are a big part of our lives in Adelaide's north. Operated by the Australian Rail Track Corporation, this is a significant part of national infrastructure, ultimately delivering freight and passengers to faraway places, like Perth and Darwin, and significant communities, such as Port Augusta, Alice Springs and Whyalla in between.

Directly adjacent to the standard-gauge line is the newly electrified broad-gauge line to Gawler, serving communities such as Mawson Lakes, Parafield Gardens and Salisbury Downs. Despite recent hold-ups from the electrification, rail plays a big part in the lives of my community. With bike tracks running parallel, a level crossing on Kings Road and commuter paths crossing both passenger and freight lines, rail safety is front and centre within my community.

While just outside my electorate, the sad memory of the crash that killed four people and left 26 injured at the level crossing on Park Terrace in Salisbury is one that haunts many constituents of mine to this day. I think all forms of rail are massive community assets, but this event is a reminder of the danger associated with this. Sadly, the memory of this avoidable tragedy is still fresh, as if the circumstances surrounding events on 24 October 2002 happened only recently.

With the 20th anniversary approaching next week, I take this opportunity to remember the event and acknowledge the ongoing trauma that it has caused. Given the significance of past events, it is appropriate that anything linked to rail safety is given good consideration. I am very hesitant to go into the details of what happened that day, but for ease I know the train driver did the best they possibly could under the circumstances. Knowing that we have exemplary drivers who continue to maintain high standards is something my community cares deeply about.

Given our concerns, it is a relief that the first set of amendments created in this bill makes it an offence for a rail safety worker to knowingly provide a false document for the purposes of an assessment of a worker's competency. The risk to public safety is obviously high when dealing with extremely heavy vehicles travelling at great speed. The public expect the best and therefore we have every right to feel outrage when instances arise where workers have been fraudulently altering certificates of competence and providing them to rail transport operators. There is an expectation that this must not be happening, which is why I support the $10,000 penalty outlined in this bill for being found guilty of such an offence.

In reading up on why this bill is needed, I was shocked by reports of fraudulent documents being used to circumvent appropriate safety accreditations. To place it into context, section 117 of the Rail Safety National Law ensures all rail operators must be accredited in carrying out rail safety work. A certificate of competence can only be issued under the Australian Qualifications Framework and this certifies that a worker has certain qualifications or units of competence which under this bill reiterates they possess those qualifications or units of competence.

We have national accreditation for a very good reason, but in general it exists to enshrine a nationally recognised standard of training to meet established industry, educational, legislative and community needs. When this gets compromised, things have the potential to go horribly wrong. Therefore, we need to clamp down in this area as a rail safety worker may have responsibility for driving or dispatching rolling stock; coupling or uncoupling rolling stock; work involving the development, management or monitoring of safe working systems for railways; and work involving the management or monitoring of passenger safety on, in or at any railway.

When it comes to rail safety, anything less than the gold standard will not suffice. Clearly, the bar has been set too low in the past to allow instances where documents have been deliberately misused. This includes a rail safety worker from a labour hire company who had his brother's certification altered as evidence of competence. We are also aware of fraudulent certificates of competency or certificates being issued without competency being achieved.

Given the serious nature of these breaches, the Malinauskas government and other governments across the country should be commended for taking this decisive approach. Given what we have heard has been happening and the hefty fine to be imposed, this is the right thing to do. This will ultimately become a national law and is therefore important a strong message is sent that safety is not the domain of cowboy operators, not in the northern suburbs or across the state or anywhere else in the country. This bill also brings the penalties in step with the same maximum penalty applying to individuals for similar offences across the country.

The second part of this bill amends the existing national law to provide the National Rail Safety Regulator with a new power to exempt all railway transport operators from section 114 of the national law in the event of an emergency. Under these laws they must prepare and implement a health and safety program for rail safety workers who carry out rail safety work for their respective operators. Currently, an exemption can only be granted by the National Rail Safety Regulator on a case-by-case basis.

When in an emergency, the need to move quickly is paramount. We saw this with COVID and, dare I say it, we will probably see this need again. Learning from the past to improve responses in the future makes perfect sense and I am pleased to see movement on this front.

While I feel the need to cooperate across jurisdictions was exemplary during the pandemic, as someone working in the Northern Territory at the time, it became very apparent that we often had our own separate ways of doing things. By transferring sign-off to an exemption to the National Rail Safety Regulator, a rapid and uniform approach to this matter will be in place for future emergencies. In doing so, we should not dismiss the need for health and safety programs for rail safety workers, but on rare occasions these have to be weighed up against the need for decisive and quick action.

Without this change, it would mean history would repeat itself, with the regulator still being unable to grant a collective exception. Let's hope it does not happen any time soon, but when it does it will be reassuring there will be an optimal process in place to ensure a plethora of laws will not slow down a national response.

There is an enormous amount of work that goes into developing bills such as these. I think it is right to make a point and acknowledge the hard work of everyone involved behind the scenes. Getting respective jurisdictions to agree to a national set of guiding principles is a fine balancing act and this should never be understated.

I also want to acknowledge this bill was developed in consultation with the National Transport Commission, all states and territories, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, and members of the rail industry including the Australasian Railway Association, and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. There are a lot of varying needs and opinions that need to be taken into consideration. I think it is commendable these can all be pulled together in the interest of public safety. I thank all those involved and commend the bill to the house.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (16:59): I rise today in support of the bill to amend the Rail Safety National Law. Earlier this year, I hosted the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport for a community meeting to provide members of my electorate the opportunity to discuss their concerns with public transport, our roads and other infrastructure and transport issues.

The most common concerns raised, other than the privatisation of our trains and trams, which we are going to reverse, were congestion and increased traffic on suburban roads. We know that the best way to reduce congestion—if you cared you would not have done it—and get cars off the road is to get more South Australians using public transport.

That is why we removed the free travel peak time travel exemptions for Seniors Card holders so that, instead of only being able to access free travel during off peak, seniors can now access public transport for free at any time. By getting more people on public transport, we get more cars off the road and less pollution in the air.

While that is much easier said than done, good government should be doing everything it can to increase the uptake of public transport. Bills like this do exactly that. South Australians deserve to know that whether they are going to school, sport, shopping, visiting friends and family or anything in between, they can do it safely and accessibly on public transport. South Australians also want to know that the workers operating our public transport systems are doing so safely and are provided with adequate conditions and protections while they are at work.

This bill seeks to amend the Rail Safety National Law by making it an offence for a rail safety worker to knowingly provide false or misleading documentation to be used for an assessment of their own competency. Railway workers must be provided every opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge they need to perform their job. With this bill, patrons can trust workers to get them where they need to go and are able to do so safely, for everyone involved.

At present, section 117 of the National Rail Safety Law requires a transport operator to ensure that rail safety workers have the competence to carry out rail safety work in respect of the railway operations for which the operator must be accredited. This bill provides a new offence provision with a maximum penalty of $10,000 if a worker is found guilty of providing false or misleading documentation in assessment of their competency.

Building trust in our public transport system goes a long way to increasing community participation. South Australians want to know that the train they hop on is clean, is being operated safely and is part of a safe and secure network and a network that is operated and run by the state government. They also want to know that their local station is accessible and has the facilities they need. I am really proud that our government is working towards making all our public transport systems as accessible as possible.

I was so excited to recently stand alongside my good friend and colleague the member for Badcoe to share that work has begun at the Woodlands Park railway station. This important upgrade will provide a new shelter at the station, while still keeping the roof; so we get to keep some of the nice building that is there. We are keeping the good bits but getting rid of the bad bits and making it a bit trickier for people to do some of the less desirable things that sometimes happen at a train station when people really need to go. We are going to reduce some of that privacy to make it a little bit harder for those types of activities to occur on that platform.

We will get that new shelter and we are also going to improve the surfacing of that station. There will be new bitumen across the station, as well as the little yellow grids near the edge to provide safety and a different texture so that people are aware they are approaching the edge. They have also done some work there to get all the conduit in for future electrical works that will need to be undertaken once that shelter has had the work done on it and parts of it are removed. We will also have some better lighting there and I believe also some additional seating.

Upgrades such as these are so important to ensure that we encourage more people, in particular women and children and young students, people who do not always necessarily feel safe using public transport. It is important to ensure that they, whether they are coming home from work or school or school sport or anything else, can feel safe as they arrive at their local station.

It is why the Malinauskas Labor government has also committed $1.6 million to upgrade the Clarence Park railway station. The community has asked for this upgrade for a long time. It is something that, again, the member for Badcoe and I have been working hard on, and it is really important. We would like to acknowledge that a member of our community recently passed away close to that station in an awful accident. We pay our respects to her family and people who were close to her.

This bill also amends the Rail Safety National Law to provide the National Rail Safety Regulator with a new power that exempts all rail transport operations from section 114 of the national law in the event of an emergency. Section 114 requires the preparation and implementation of health and fitness programs for rail safety workers. Obviously, it was quite difficult for a number of workers, over the last couple of years, to be able to access those programs and that sort of training that is normally required, during COVID with various restrictions in place.

These amendments in the bill will allow for exemptions from such programs to be more easily provided in the case of an emergency, such as COVID-19, which makes the standard requirements which apply under normal circumstances difficult to comply with. This will allow the National Rail Safety Regulator to grant the exemption which removes the need for the relevant minister in each jurisdiction to provide a separate exemption in each state and territory when these emergency situations arise. Combined, these amendments are sensible measures which have been agreed between all jurisdictions to support the safety of our rail workers and users.

I would like to thank everyone who works at our Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the people who ensure that we get to work, school and all the fun things on public transport, safely. I would like to thank the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, the National Transport Commission, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, the Australasian Railway Association, members of the rail industry, and my colleagues in other jurisdictions across the country for their contributions to this important legislation. I commend the bill to the house.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:07): I would like to speak on this bill and in support of the bill and reaffirm this government's strong commitment to public transport, and particularly rail transport. Members may recall that we electrified the southern line when we were last in government. We initiated the electrification of the northern line to Gawler when we were in government. I was going to say that it was completed by the Liberal government but it actually was not. It was completed during the period of a Labor government again, because the Liberal government took so long to get their act together. I think it was delayed about 18 months and was over budget by hundreds of millions of dollars—but they did a pretty good job.

I am glad that we have electrified trains to Gawler. They are well received. Sadly, not enough people are using the trains again yet. I use it regularly. It is important that we get more people on rail and on public transport because it improves road safety by having more people on public transport and particularly more people on rail because that is the main form of public transport in Gawler. We have a local bus service, but we do not have a publicly funded bus service which connects Gawler to the other parts of Adelaide.

I talk about the importance of rail because we need to understand why people use public transport, and particularly rail, and what might dissuade them from using it, to make sure that we get enough people using rail. Rail safety and road safety are related and we need to get more people on to the rail system.

It is interesting when talking to people about what issues come up about rail. Some older people talk about their concerns about their personal safety on rail. I have been using the rail system since 1978, which probably dates me a bit. I have been very fortunate that I have never had any incidents. I have observed some poor behaviour. I have observed a whole range of things, but I never thought I was unsafe, with perhaps one exception.

It might have been 1978, when I was a student at university and took the 11.35 train home. I probably would not do that again. I was 18 years old and on the train at night. There was interesting clientele on the train at that time of night. People perhaps sleep different hours from the hours I sleep. Apart from that, I have been very happy with the train service. The new trains and the new electrified trains are really good and well received.

Another issue which is an important factor, which determines whether we use rail—particularly rail more so than buses—is timetables. I am aware that this government will review timetables once we have the full electrified stock for the service to Gawler. I certainly will be working with my community to make sure that we get a train timetable that reflects the needs of people in Gawler and my electorate, particularly those that cover the train stations of Gawler Central, Gawler Oval, Gawler, the racecourse on race day, Evanston, Tambelin, Kudla (the train station I used to go to as a student, which is where I live) and Munno Para.

Smithfield is not in my electorate, but it is serviced quite a bit in my electorate because it is a priority train station and Munno Para is not, even though Munno Para has a $13½ million train station. It is not used quite as much as it should be, and that is an important factor when I have talked about train timetables because those priority stations obviously get more patronage, and that makes sense.

Unfortunately, those stations are not necessarily the ones with the best infrastructure. We need to match up the infrastructure available and reduce the need for additional infrastructure. An example is Smithfield and Gawler stations, which are two priority stations. When we get back to normal levels, the car parks are full; by 9 o'clock they are chock-a-block. People then start parking in side streets, etc., causing a nuisance. Those two stations at some point will need additional infrastructure.

My view is that if we make a couple of other priority stations, where infrastructure exists, rather than empty car parks, we can use them. Tambelin railway station, when talking about safety of people getting to the train station and getting on the train, is an election commitment we made in 2018. Unfortunately, we did not win that election. The Liberal government did nothing at Tambelin railway station to improve it. I made that same election commitment this time.

We won the election this time, so our government is now delivering on that election commitment. That commitment has been fully assessed by the community. The commitment was made publicly and is supported by the community at large. I get regular letters and correspondence from people in the area asking when the car park and kiss and drop zone are going to be built. We will do that. Public transport has to be accessible, which leads to my third point about making sure that we have a safe rail system that is accessible for all people.

We are improving the infrastructure. Tambelin station is one about which we have had a number of complaints from people with gophers and other mobility aids who have found it very difficult to access. Also, the quality of the infrastructure at the station was pretty poor, and it took quite a while to convince the government of the day, the Liberal government, to improve the infrastructure at that station. It has been done, and certainly people appreciate the additional services there.

Another thing about rail safety is obviously making sure that people can see the crossings quite well. We do have an issue with some rail crossings where, unfortunately, during peak hour traffic and the way the roads are aligned you do have the afternoon sun right in front of you, or the morning sun right in front of you, which does cause some issues. However, we have improved the signalling at those stations and those roads to improve rail safety.

One of the other things about trains is the demand for trains. We have a whole range of people in our community who are train enthusiasts. I get regular correspondence from train enthusiasts, and they are really keen to know about the government's commitment—which I have no doubt will be honoured—to undertake a full feasibility study to see whether a tourism-type train can operate from Gawler into the Barossa.

My discussions with the department indicate that money has been allocated for that project and that they are likely to get an independent external consultant to work on that project with a range of people from the Barossa acting as a steering committee. It is interesting that people in the Barossa think that this is a good idea. Unfortunately, elected members to this place do not think it is a good idea, but everybody else seems to think it is a good idea. I think that the former Minister for Transport, the former member for Schubert, did his best to put enough barriers on that line to ensure that a tourism train would never eventuate.

Part of that, I think, was the dispute he had with a particular owner of a winery in that area which was carried forward and which is very sad. At one stage they were going to do some repairs to one bridge just outside Lyndoch for road safety reasons. The repairs to the bridge, or the reconstruction of this bridge, would have meant that the line would be cut off there, and if that happened it would kill off the project.

I am happy to say that I am advised by the department now that the revised plans will keep that line intact, and so from Gawler to Tanunda initially and perhaps one day from Gawler to Nuriootpa we will have tourism-type trains. The biggest beneficiaries of this investigation into the viability of this proposed train service for tourists would be the people of the southern Barossa area. They are very supportive of this. The southern Barossa is the original Barossa. It is where the Barossa was started with the original Barossa council.

As a result of the construction of Gomersal Road, as well as the upgrading of the Sturt Highway, the southern Barossa does sometimes get missed by tourists who tend to bypass the southern part of the Barossa. They are therefore very keen to see this possible piece of tourism infrastructure completed.

We have made it very clear, though, that, as a government, while we support the feasibility study, it is not going to be a proposal funded by the government. The private sector has to make it work. Our role is to help the private sector work out what needs to be done, and also what needs to be done in terms of the people who have the lease over the line at the moment. I think it is called One Rail these days. They have changed their name a number of times in the time I have been in this place. Lease arrangements also need to be negotiated.

That tourism train could bring enormous benefits to the Barossa. A number of rail enthusiasts have drawn to my attention the success of such trains, not only overseas but also in the Eastern States. There are a number of trains which do run quite profitably for tourism purposes. Some suggestions have been made about the possibility of extending that line for the transport of goods out of the Barossa to the Port.

I am not sure of the feasibility of doing that, but certainly there are a number of people in the Barossa thinking ahead in terms of decarbonising the component part of their product. Europe is a major market. With the European market imposing a whole range of new conditions about carbon and the carbon footprint, we need to make sure that our industry is able to be at the forefront of reforms and can deliver products in a more carbon-reduced manner, or else we will not have entry into some of the markets.

As you can tell from the comments I have made, I am a great supporter of not only rail in this state but also the benefits of rail, particularly tourism, as expected, and also as a passenger service. It was interesting that when the Gawler line was closed down for the reconstruction and electrification, the amount of traffic did increase at the northern end on our roads. Sadly, though, not everybody has returned to the train station.

They were down for so long that people found alternative ways of getting to Adelaide. I am sad to say that the Northern Connector works so well that people now see it as a viable alternative to using rail, except if you have to pay petrol prices. Petrol prices are helping to put people back on the trains as well. If you own a car and you have to pay the petrol bill every week, rail is a very convenient substitute and a very useful substitute.

In terms of the bill before us, the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill is about rail safety and it is part of our national laws. We are moving more to national laws, which makes good sense because we are one nation and we should have as many consistent laws across state boundaries as possible. That was certainly envisaged in the constitution, too: you were not supposed to put up barriers to trade between states, so that acknowledged that there should be the least barriers possible between the states.

The first group of amendments in this bill makes it an offence for a rail safety worker to knowingly provide a document or information for the purpose of an assessment of the worker's competency which is false or misleading or that omits something without which the document or information is misleading. I think it makes a lot of sense to make sure we have people working in the sector who are appropriately qualified to do the work. The repercussions of having somebody who is not properly qualified can be quite serious.

As an aside—I had this case recently, but I will not particularly mention the industry or identify the person—with a lot of the training being privatised and put into RTOs, etc., it would be fair to say some of the quality and consistency of the training nationally is, I think, subject to review. I had an example where a person undertook a particular professional qualification interstate.

He undertook the course at an interstate RTO. He then obviously submitted his certificate of competency—his certificate III or diploma, I cannot remember what it was—from that RTO to get his registration to work in that profession, and that is licensed under South Australian law. He had great difficulty actually getting his professional licence. In the end, after some toing and froing he did so, but the South Australian agency was reluctant to provide this person with the necessary documentation to get this person's licence because they had concerns about the RTO.

It is a worry if we have people paying good dollars to actually obtain the necessary training qualifications and competencies and, if the quality is not up to scratch, are then denied an opportunity to work in the profession they have trained for. I have no doubt that the new federal government with its commitment to TAFE and its commitment to lift the skills and training standards in this country—as this state Labor government is as well—will actually iron out those problems and ensure we have a much better resourced TAFE system and also a better resourced and consistent vocational education system across the country.

I will get back on track, Mr Acting Speaker, if you will excuse the pun. The bill also amends the national law to provide the National Rail Safety Regulator with a new power to exempt all rail transport operators from section 114 of the national law in the event of an emergency. I think that is important. If you have an emergency, it is a case of all hands on deck, and somebody needs to take control—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: On board.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: On board—yes, steaming ahead. Section 114 of the national law requires a rail transport operator to prepare and implement a health and fitness program for rail safety workers who carry out rail safety work for the operator. There are some risks in doing that, but I think the risks are less compared with if you do not act in an emergency situation.

The bill was developed in consultation with the National Transport Commission, all states and territories, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator and members of the rail industry, including the Australasian Railway Association and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. This provides an excellent example of what you can achieve when you consult the relevant parties to achieve national reform, or any major reform.

Earlier today, this house passed a bill which again was a major reform—the Shop Trading Hours (Extension of hours) Amendment Bill—and that was achieved because the government of the day, the Labor government, consulted all the parties. We got people on board. If you consult with people rather than undertake unilateral action, which the former Treasurer did in relation to shop trading hours, we would have actually just provided all these exemptions willy-nilly and nobody would know where they stood. By working with the relevant parties, you actually get good laws and everybody knows where they stand.

In relation to the new offence provision, a rail safety worker is relevantly defined as an individual who has carried out, is carrying out or is about to carry out rail safety work. Rail safety work includes:

driving or dispatching rolling stock, such as a train or tram, or any other activity which is capable of controlling or affecting the movement of rolling stock;

coupling or uncoupling rolling stock;

work involving the development, management or monitoring of safe working systems for railways; and

work involving the management or monitoring of passenger safety on, in or at any other railway.

So the real issue of passenger safety is very important. With those comments, and for the reasons I have outlined, I think this is a bill worthy of our support.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Odenwalder): A comprehensive and wideranging contribution from the member for Light.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (17:27): I rise today in support of this bill. Rail safety is an incredibly important issue, not only in our state but across the country. On average, there are 83 fatalities on Australian rail lines every year. In South Australia, we have 480 pedestrian crossings, with around 350 on the metropolitan rail network. We also have 557 public railway level crossings, including 79 metropolitan level crossings. On average, there are 110 near misses and six collisions between a train and people or vehicles every year.

All incidents, whether fatal collisions or near misses, have an immeasurable effect on train drivers, railway and emergency service employees, and their families in particular. As humans, we are all capable of making mistakes and we do every day. Recognising this helps us create a more forgiving road and rail network to minimise harm and ensure that those mistakes do not result in death or serious injury.

It is with this in mind that we need to ensure that all rail safety workers are adequately trained and that they are provided with the necessary documentation that is true and accurate so that rail providers know that their staff, whether they be permanent or labour hire, have the necessary training to do their jobs properly. Emergencies can happen in an instant, and workers need to be able to draw on their training so that they can quickly, efficiently and safely respond.

Section 117 of the Rail Safety National Law requires a rail transport operator to ensure that rail safety workers have the competence to carry out rail safety work in respect of the railway operations for which the operator must be accredited. A rail safety worker's competence is assessed in accordance with their applicable qualifications and units of competence, as recognised under the Australian Qualifications Framework. A certificate of competence that certifies that the worker has certain qualifications or units of competence is used as evidence to prove this.

Unfortunately, there have been instances of rail safety workers fraudulently altering certificates of competence and providing them to rail transport operators. There are multiple examples of rail safety workers having provided false or misleading documents in order to satisfy the necessary qualifications to work. Not only does this put the worker in danger but it also puts in danger those with whom they work as well as the general public and rail users and also general road users.

The ongoing use of labour hire adds to this risk, with workers brought in from outside the usual employer. In 2021, the National Rail Safety Regulator issued the following rail safety alert:

The Rail Industry Worker (RIW) program is an online competency management system for rail workers in the Australian rail industry. Part of the governance arrangements overseeing the program is to check and verify the competencies that have been uploaded into the RIW system. This check and verification process has uncovered a significant number of fraudulent competencies have been uploaded into the RIW system by an administration officer in a Category 5 labour hire company.

The rail providers were encouraged to check the system, check their employers and then make the necessary adjustments. It is another example where fraudulent documents had been uploaded to the system.

The amendments to the bill make it an offence for a rail safety worker to knowingly provide a document or information for the purposes of an assessment of the worker's competency that is false or misleading or that omits something where the document or information is misleading. If a rail safety worker is found guilty of this offence, they will face a maximum penalty of $10,000. Given the dangerous equipment and infrastructure these workers deal with every day, we need to ensure all workers have the necessary training, and this amendment will act as a deterrent to those wishing to provide false and misleading information.

The bill also amends the national law to provide the National Rail Safety Regulator with a new power to exempt all rail transport operators from section 114 of the national law in the event of an emergency. Section 114 of the national law requires a rail transport operator to prepare and implement a health and fitness program for rail safety workers who carry out rail safety for the operator.

In South Australia an emergency can be declared as an identified major incident, a major emergency or a disaster, such as COVID in 2020. At this time, the responsible minister in each state and territory granted rail operators in their jurisdiction an exemption that only applied to the requirement for operators to arrange for periodic health assessments for certain categories of rail safety workers. During this time, the regulator was unable to grant an exemption to all rail transport operators at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The amendments will give the National Rail Safety Regulator the power to exempt all rail transport operators, or a class of rail transport operators, from section 114 of the national law in the event of an emergency. It will also allow the regulator to grant the exemption which removes the need for the relevant minister in each jurisdiction to provide a separate exemption in each state and territory.

The amendments to this bill are sensible measures which have been agreed to between all jurisdictions. Making our rail system safe will encourage our community to use it more. On Sunday, the Minister for Transport, the member for West Torrens, will be joining me in Eden Hills as I host a public transport forum. Many in my community report to me that they want to use public transport more, and I want to hear from our community about how I can make that happen.

We need a safe and efficient public transport system, and I am glad to be part of a government who takes rail safety seriously. The safer our public feel about using public transport, the better it will be for the environment and traffic congestion. This week, I have been catching the train to parliament. Not only do you get back an hour and a half of your life you lose battling traffic but you can also use this time to relax, or work in my case, but I have noticed the difference.

Our rail system is efficient, and I am glad this bill will continue to keep it safe. Recently, I was able to coordinate with the ARTC (Rail Transport Corporation), which takes care of our freight line, and our local action group, Blackwood Action Group, to have access to the Coromandel train station platform. They have been asking for access to this for many years and no-one has been able to help them.

Fortunately, with the help of ARTC and a rail transport safety officer, we were able to access the platform. We were able to bring together probably 19 volunteers, and we all got together, did all the weeding and put in new plants, and now the platform looks excellent and, going forward, they will have access to it. I was really glad to be able to create that relationship for them. ARTC also worked with me after the election to clean up the Glenalta train station. We brought in Mitcham council and Landcare, and together we are all looking after a section of land that has been left as a dirt pile for many years.

We need to make sure that our rail corridor is as beautiful as it can be to encourage more people to use it, but we also need to make it safe. I encourage everybody to support this bill so that we can have a safe rail system for our future. I commend the bill to the house.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:34): Can I first of all thank all members who contributed to this debate. It is an important debate to be involved in. South Australia is the lead legislator for national rail safety. I also want to thank the opposition and the shadow minister for his cooperation and support.

Drafting legislation for national reforms is a slow and arduous task and it can be very difficult and laborious. It takes a long time to get to the parliaments and when it gets to the parliaments it makes it so much easier when the opposition are prepared to support the work being done at a national level, even though often at that national level the opposition is excluded, through just not being in office, from the deliberations around the theory of formulating the law, so it does take a lot of forbearance of the opposition, so I thank them for that. I thank members for their contributions. Trains are not easy to negotiate and making sure we can get this right is very important. I commend the bill to the house.

Bill read a second time.

Third Reading

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:36): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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