Untitled document

Electricity Industry Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Act 2009

No. 72 of 2009

TABLE OF PROVISIONS

Section  Page

1Purpose

2Commencement

3Principal Act

4New definitions inserted

5New Part 4 inserted

PART 4—PROTECTION OF CRITICAL ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE

79Being on premises or land or in enclosure where there
is critical electricity infrastructure prohibited

80Unauthorised interference with critical electricity infrastructure plant or equipment or vehicles

6Repeal of Act

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ENDNOTES

Electricity Industry Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Act 2009

No. 72 of 2009

[Assented to 1 December 2009]

The Parliament of Victoria enacts:

1Purpose

The purpose of this Act is to amend the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to create new offences in relation to—

(a)without authority, being on land or premises on which, or in enclosures in which, critical electricity infrastructure is situated; and

(b)damaging, interfering or tampering with or attaching things to critical electricity infrastructure plant or equipment or certain related vehicles without authority.

2Commencement

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

3Principal Act

In this Act the Electricity Industry Act 2000 is called the Principal Act.

4New definitions inserted

In section 3 of the Principal Act insert the following definitions—

"critical electricity infrastructure means—

(a)a critical generation facility; or

(b)a related coal mine; or

(c)a substation, terminal station or distribution system or transmission system switchyard;

Note

Electricity is converted, transformed and controlled at a substation, terminal station, or distribution system or transmission system switchyard.

critical generation facility—

(a)means a generation facility that—

(i)generates electricity; and

(ii)has an installed or name plate generation capacity of 1000 kVA or greater; and

(b)includes a water storage facility associated with a generation facility referred to in paragraph (a);

related coal mine—

(a)means a coal mine from which coal is extracted for use in a critical generation facility; and

(b)includes a water storage facility associated with a coal mine referred to in paragraph (a);".

5New Part 4 inserted

After Part 3 of the Principal Act insert—

"PART 4—PROTECTION OF CRITICAL ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE

79Being on premises or land or in enclosure where there is critical electricity infrastructure prohibited

A person must not be present on land or premises on which, or in an enclosure in which, critical electricity infrastructure is situated knowing that he or she does not have authority to be present on that land or those premises or in that enclosure.

Penalty:Imprisonment for 1 year.

80Unauthorised interference with critical electricity infrastructure plant or equipment or vehicles

(1)A person who—

(a)damages, interferes or tampers with, or attaches a thing to plant or equipment that forms part of critical electricity infrastructure or that is on land or premises on which, or in an enclosure in which, critical electricity infrastructure is situated (the prohibited act); and

(b)knows that he or she does not have authority to do the prohibited act; and

(c)is reckless as to whether the prohibited act will result in a disruption to the generation, transmission or distribution of electricity—

is guilty of an offence and liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 2 years.

Examples

Examples of plant or equipment are: bucket dredgers, conveyer belts, boilers, pumps, cooling towers, pipelines, sprays, turbines, transformers, switching equipment, telemetry equipment and emergency services equipment.

(2)A person who—

(a)damages, interferes or tampers with, or attaches a thing to a relevant infrastructure vehicle that is on land or premises on which, or in an enclosure in which, critical electricity infrastructure is situated (the prohibited act); and

(b)knows that he or she does not have authority to do the prohibited act; and

(c)is reckless as to whether the prohibited act will result in a disruption to the generation, transmission or distribution of electricity—

is guilty of an offence and liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 2 years.

(3)In subsection (2), relevant infrastructure vehicle means a vehicle used as part of the production process for the generation of electricity or for the purpose of maintaining critical electricity infrastructure.

__________________".

6Repeal of 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

Minister's second reading speech—

Legislative Assembly: 15 October 2009

Legislative Council: 11 November 2009

The long title for the Bill for this Act was "A Bill for an Act to amend the Electricity Industry Act 2000 to provide for the protection of critical electricity infrastructure and critical electricity infrastructure plant or equipment or related vehicles and for other purposes."