New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ELECTRICITY (CONSUMER SAFETY) ACT 2004 - SECT 38

38 Arrangements with other public authorities regarding investigable electrical incidents

(1) The Director-General, WorkCover and the Energy Director-General may enter into arrangements regarding any one or more of the following:

(a) matters concerning investigable electrical incidents that the Director-General or the Energy Director-General will refer to WorkCover for investigation or other action under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 ,

(b) matters concerning investigable electrical incidents that the Energy Director-General or WorkCover will refer to the Director-General for investigation or other action under this Act,

(c) matters concerning investigable electrical incidents that WorkCover or the Director-General will refer to the Energy Director-General for investigation or other action under the Electricity Supply Act 1995 ,

(d) matters concerning an investigable electrical incident that is the subject of investigation or other action by more than one of the following at the same time:

(i) the Director-General,

(ii) WorkCover,

(iii) the Energy Director-General,

(e) the co-operative exercise of the respective functions of the Director-General, WorkCover and the Energy Director-General in respect of investigable electrical incidents.

(2) The Director-General, WorkCover and the Energy Director-General are jointly to cause notice of any arrangements entered into under this section to be published in the Gazette as soon as is practicable after they are entered into. However, a failure to publish any such arrangements does not affect their validity.

(3) A party to an arrangement entered into under this section:

(a) may decline, discontinue or defer an investigation or other action in relation to an investigable electrical incident to give effect to the arrangement, and

(b) may disclose any information concerning a matter involving an investigable electrical incident that was duly obtained by that party to another party to the arrangement to which the matter is referred so as to give effect to the arrangement.

(4) A party to which a matter is referred under an arrangement entered into under this section may investigate or deal with information obtained in respect of the matter referred in order to give effect to the arrangement.

(5) In this section:
"Energy Director-General" means the Director-General within the meaning of the Electricity Supply Act 1995 .
"investigable electrical incident" means an accident or other incident:

(a) in which electricity is involved, and

(b) as a consequence of which a person dies or suffers permanent disability, is hospitalised, receives treatment from a health care professional or is unable to attend work for any period of time.

"WorkCover" means the WorkCover Authority constituted by the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 .