Page 592 - Week 02 - Thursday, 22 February 2018
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relation to safety. This includes responsibility for ensuring that life jackets are available and worn by occupants in the boat, and are the appropriate type of life jacket for the person. This is particularly important for young children where an adult life jacket would not be suitable.
The master also has responsibilities in relation to boating accidents. This includes a requirement to stop and assist in the event of an accident, to provide licence information to other parties involved in the accident and to report the details of the accident to the appropriate authority. These requirements are consistent with road rules regarding safety and accidents and are again modelled on contemporary provisions contained in the corresponding New South Wales legislation.
To complement the provisions of the bill relating to safety and navigation, the bill contains enforcement provisions. These provisions are modelled on the corresponding New South Wales enforcement provisions and provide powers for authorised lakes inspectors to inspect boats for compliance with the act.
The proposed amendments to the Lakes Act will also insert and update contemporary safety and navigation requirements and associated directions and offences provisions relating to the use of the territory’s lakes, consistent with the surrounding New South Wales waters. These provisions cover actions relating to the safe use of boats in the territory’s lakes, including speed, boat operation, navigation, signals and lighting, towing, and loading of boats and safety equipment.
The bill also contains directions powers for lakes inspectors in relation to the safe use of our lakes. This will allow lakes inspectors to issue directions where a person is operating in a manner that could be considered a risk to other users or where the person is operating a boat in a reckless or negligent manner. For example, where a lake area has been closed for a safety reason, an inspector can direct the person to leave the area.
The bill also includes provisions for breaches of the safety and navigation provisions included in the bill. For example, where a person is required to wear an appropriate life jacket or carry specific safety equipment, these offences due to their nature are strict liability offences which can result in a person being fined for noncompliance.
The more serious offences which could result in significant risk to public safety are contained within the act. The penalties associated with these provisions are modelled on the corresponding New South Wales penalties appropriate to the ACT context. Provisions and offences of a lesser and technical nature are to be included in the new regulation to support the operation of the bill.
In relation to the proposed regulations under the bill, I note that these cover matters such as requirements for safety equipment to be carried on a boat, qualifications of operators and detailed safety and navigation rules.
I would like to finish by talking briefly about the requirements in the bill for operators and passengers on boats to wear life jackets. The government amendment which I will move shortly reflects consistency with the New South Wales rules for surrounding
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