Just one day after Victoria passed legislation to adopt national heavy vehicle regulations, NSW introduced bill to do the same
By Brad Gardner | May 30, 2013
The march toward national heavy vehicle regulations is continuing apace, with New South Wales yesterday becoming the latest jurisdiction to begin work on adopting the reforms.
Just one day after both houses of Victoria’s Parliament passed legislation to move away from state-based regulation of heavy vehicles, NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay introduced the Heavy Vehicle (Adoption of National Law) Bill to start the process in his state.
Except for Western Australia, all states and territories are due to pass legislation this year to adopt the Heavy Vehicle National Law to hand over the regulation of heavy vehicles to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR).
While the new regime is due to begin on September 1, Gay says a national registration scheme will not be introduced for another two years.
“Transport Ministers have agreed that this will commence in mid-2015 once a national system has been developed,” he says.
NSW earlier this year introduced bills to prepare the State for the introduction of national regulations by consolidating a number of transport laws.
Gay says making the NHVR the single point of contact for trucking operators will improve productivity and safety while also streamlining regulatory arrangements.
“A single national regulator for heavy vehicles overhauls the situation where, for the past two decades, the heavy vehicle industry has been governed by a dozen nationally approved model laws that lack coherence across jurisdictions,” he says.
“There will be one set of laws that the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator will administer.”
The Bill is the first part of a two-stage process, with Gay saying a second bill will follow later this year to address any modification to the national law, repeal and amend other acts and outline savings and transitional arrangements.
Gay says the second bill will be introduced the spring session of Parliament and passed before national regulations begin.
Debate on the Bill has been adjourned.
