Major Transport Projects Facilitation Amendment Act 2019 (Vic)

Major Transport Projects Facilitation Amendment Act 2019

No. 10 of 2019

table of provisions

Section  Page

1Purpose

2Commencement

3Principal Act

4Definitions—Part 7 of Principal Act

5Section 209 substituted

6Scope of utility agreements changed

7Sections 211 and 212 substituted and new section 211A inserted

8Negotiation trigger notice

9Section 216 substituted

10New Part 11 inserted

11Statute law revision

12Repeal of amending Act

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Endnotes

1      General information

Major Transport Projects Facilitation Amendment Act 2019

No. 10 of 2019

[Assented to 7 May 2019]

The Parliament of Victoria enacts:

1Purpose

The purpose of this Act is to amend the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009—

(a)to facilitate the earlier engagement of utilities by project authorities in relation to utility infrastructure affected by declared projects; and

(b)to facilitate the earlier negotiation of utility agreements between project authorities and utilities.

2Commencement

This Act comes into operation on the day after the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

3Principal Act

In this Act, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009 is called the Principal Act.

4Definitions—Part 7 of Principal Act

In section 208 of the Principal Act—

(a)insert the following definition—

"project authority notice means a notice under section 211A(1);";

(b)for the definition of notification period substitute—

"notification period means the period of time referred to in section 212(a) or (b);";

(c)in the definition of notified utility infrastructure, for "notice under section 211" substitute "a project authority notice";

(d)in the definition of parties omit "a notice under".

5Section 209 substituted

For section 209 of the Principal Act substitute—

"209   Meaning of unnotified utility infrastructure

For the purposes of this Part, unnotified utility infrastructure is utility infrastructure—

(a)the location of which a project authority does not know because—

(i)the project authority has not, after taking all reasonable steps, identified the utility infrastructure and given the utility that owns, operates or controls that utility infrastructure a project authority notice; or

(ii)the utility that owns, operates or controls the utility infrastructure has not complied with section 212; or

(b)the location of which was incorrectly described, or incorrectly given, by the utility that owns, operates or controls the utility infrastructure in purported compliance with section 212.".

6Scope of utility agreements changed

(1)In section 210(1) of the Principal Act—

(a)in paragraph (a) omit "within a project area";

(b)in paragraph (b)—

(i)for "approved project" substitute "declared project";

(ii)omit "located within a project area".

(2)In section 210(2) of the Principal Act—

(a)in paragraph (a)—

(i)omit "located within the project area";

(ii)for "approved project" substitute "declared project";

(b)in paragraph (b)—

(i)omit "located within a project area";

(ii)in subparagraphs (i) and (ii), for "approved project" substitute "declared project".

7Sections 211 and 212 substituted and new section 211A inserted

For sections 211 and 212 of the Principal Act substitute—

"211   Project authority must identify all utility infrastructure and utilities

A project authority must take all reasonable steps to identify—

(a)all utility infrastructure that may be affected by the development of the declared project; and

(b)every utility that owns, controls or operates utility infrastructure referred to in paragraph (a).

211AProject authority may notify identified utility for utility to notify location of its utility infrastructure

(1)A project authority may give a utility that the project authority has identified under section 211 a written notice (a project authority notice) that complies with subsection (2).

(2)A notice referred to in subsection (1) must—

(a)specify the area or areas of land that forms part of the project area or that the project authority considers may form part of the project area (the specified area); and

(b)state that the utility must give, within the notification period, written notice, in accordance with section 212, as to whether the utility owns, operates or controls utility infrastructure in the specified area; and

(c)state that if the utility gives written notice that it owns, operates or controls utility infrastructure in the specified area, the utility must—

(i)include, in the notice, a description of the nature of the utility infrastructure and its location; and

(ii)attach, to the notice, a plan that covers the specified area that shows—

(A)the location of the utility infrastructure within an area of 3 square metres or less; or

(B)at least 2 locations of the utility infrastructure in a way that will enable the project authority to determine the precise location of the infrastructure; and

(d)state that if the utility does not comply with section 212, any utility infrastructure owned, operated or controlled by the utility located in the specified area will be taken to be unnotified utility infrastructure for the purposes of this Part.

212Utility must comply with project authority notice

A utility that receives a project authority notice must comply with the notice—

(a)within 30 business days after receiving the notice; or

(b)if the project authority agrees, before the end of the period referred to in paragraph (a), to a longer period of time within which the utility must comply with the notice—within that longer period of time.".

8Negotiation trigger notice

In section 213 of the Principal Act—

(a)for "a notice under section 211" substitute "section 212";

(b)for "the end of the notification period" substitute "the utility has complied with that section".

9Section 216 substituted

For section 216 of the Principal Act substitute—

"216   Project authority or utility can commence dispute resolution procedure

Despite anything to the contrary in this Part, either of the parties may give written notice to the other party that a dispute exists to which this Division applies at any time after the start of the negotiation period.".

10New Part 11 inserted

After Part 10 of the Principal Act insert—

"Part 11—Transitional provisions—Major Transport Projects Facilitation Amendment Act 2019

268Definitions

In this Part—

amending Act means Major Transport Projects Facilitation Amendment Act 2019;

commencement day means the day on which the amending Act comes into operation;

North East Link Project means the transport project declared to be a declared project under section 10, the declaration of which was published in the Government Gazette on 19 June 2018.

269Identification of utility infrastructure and utilities for the purposes of North East Link Project

On the commencement day, any steps taken by the project authority for the North East Link Project to identify utility infrastructure, and the utilities that own, operate or control that utility infrastructure, for the purposes of developing the North East Link Project are taken to be reasonable steps for the purposes of section 211 (as substituted by section 7 of the amending Act).

270Utility responses in relation to location of utility infrastructure for the purposes of North East Link Project

(1)This section applies if before the commencement day a utility has, in response to a request from the project authority for the North East Link Project about the location of utility infrastructure that it owns, operates or controls, given the project authority the requested information.

(2)On the commencement day, the utility is taken to have complied with section 212 (as substituted by section 7 of the amending Act).".

11Statute law revision

In section 230(2) of the Principal Act, for "instituted" substitute "commenced".

12Repeal of amending Act

This Act is repealed on the first anniversary of its commencement.

Note

The repeal of this Act does not affect the continuing operation of the amendments made by it (see section 15(1) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984).

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Endnotes

1   General information

See for Victorian Bills, Acts and current authorised versions of legislation and up-to-date legislative information.

Minister's second reading speech—

Legislative Assembly: 6 March 2019

Legislative Council: 21 March 2019

The long title for the Bill for this Act was "A Bill for an Act to amend the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009 and for other purposes."