❓ Question regarding the government's change in approach to private power pole safety inspections, specifically concerning EnergySafety's oversight and public awareness. The Minister responds by outlining resource constraints and a new awareness campaign.
AnsweredQoN 972Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
POWER
POLES — SAFETY INSPECTIONS
972. Hon KATE DOUST to the Minister for
Commerce:
I refer to yesterday's joint
media release put out by the Ministers for Energy and Commerce entitled ''Owners
responsible for poles, lines on their property''.
(1) Given that
the government announced in January that the compulsory inspection scheme was
to be oversighted by EnergySafety, why has the government decided to change its
position?
(2) How can the
minister be sure that all private pole owners will be made aware of their
obligation through just one mail-out?
POLES — SAFETY INSPECTIONS
972. Hon KATE DOUST to the Minister for
Commerce:
I refer to yesterday's joint
media release put out by the Ministers for Energy and Commerce entitled ''Owners
responsible for poles, lines on their property''.
(1) Given that
the government announced in January that the compulsory inspection scheme was
to be oversighted by EnergySafety, why has the government decided to change its
position?
(2) How can the
minister be sure that all private pole owners will be made aware of their
obligation through just one mail-out?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the honourable member for
the question.
(1)–(2) The
estimate is that there is something around 200 000 to one-quarter of a million
private power poles in Western Australia. EnergySafety is charged with the
responsibility of overseeing the operations of utilities such as Western Power
and Horizon Power, and the maintenance of the infrastructure of those
organisations. To add to that the obligation of tracking down, identifying and
inspecting all the private poles in Western Australia is something for which no
current resources are available. To do that—it being an industry-funded
body—it would have to impose additional levies on those utilities
currently providing the funding for EnergySafety. That, necessarily, would be
passed on to every other consumer in the state, not just those who are using private
power poles and private power lines. In any event, there are only, I think,
about 4 500 licensed electrical contractors in Western Australia, and not all
those may be sufficiently qualified to conduct an inspection process even if
all were engaged in it. The program the government has resolved on is a
three-year awareness program that will draw the attention of owners of property
upon which there are private power lines and poles to give attention to
maintaining that infrastructure, and put the responsibility where it belongs—with
the owner of those poles. The campaign will not only involve mail-outs, along
with the electricity accounts, to power users, but also targeted advertising in
metropolitan and regional newspapers, and advertisements in magazines targeted
at farmers in rural areas. It must be borne in mind that not all private power
poles are in rural areas; some are in the metropolitan area. It is a
multifaceted campaign, with a view to alerting those who have the legal
responsibility to maintain their poles to the necessity to draw their attention
to the maintenance of that infrastructure and to identify hazards for which
they are responsible and to keep those hazards under control. It will not
necessarily be a one-off; there will be a monitoring of the campaign, and there
will be advertising as to how people can gain assistance to assess the safety
of the poles on their property.
There has been, also, an issue in the
past as to identifying who is responsible for particular poles on private property,
and part of the campaign will be to assist people in identifying whether the
responsibility lies with them or with one of the utilities such as Western
Power or Horizon Power.
the question.
(1)–(2) The
estimate is that there is something around 200 000 to one-quarter of a million
private power poles in Western Australia. EnergySafety is charged with the
responsibility of overseeing the operations of utilities such as Western Power
and Horizon Power, and the maintenance of the infrastructure of those
organisations. To add to that the obligation of tracking down, identifying and
inspecting all the private poles in Western Australia is something for which no
current resources are available. To do that—it being an industry-funded
body—it would have to impose additional levies on those utilities
currently providing the funding for EnergySafety. That, necessarily, would be
passed on to every other consumer in the state, not just those who are using private
power poles and private power lines. In any event, there are only, I think,
about 4 500 licensed electrical contractors in Western Australia, and not all
those may be sufficiently qualified to conduct an inspection process even if
all were engaged in it. The program the government has resolved on is a
three-year awareness program that will draw the attention of owners of property
upon which there are private power lines and poles to give attention to
maintaining that infrastructure, and put the responsibility where it belongs—with
the owner of those poles. The campaign will not only involve mail-outs, along
with the electricity accounts, to power users, but also targeted advertising in
metropolitan and regional newspapers, and advertisements in magazines targeted
at farmers in rural areas. It must be borne in mind that not all private power
poles are in rural areas; some are in the metropolitan area. It is a
multifaceted campaign, with a view to alerting those who have the legal
responsibility to maintain their poles to the necessity to draw their attention
to the maintenance of that infrastructure and to identify hazards for which
they are responsible and to keep those hazards under control. It will not
necessarily be a one-off; there will be a monitoring of the campaign, and there
will be advertising as to how people can gain assistance to assess the safety
of the poles on their property.
There has been, also, an issue in the
past as to identifying who is responsible for particular poles on private property,
and part of the campaign will be to assist people in identifying whether the
responsibility lies with them or with one of the utilities such as Western
Power or Horizon Power.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.