MINES and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore has released figures relating to prohibition and improvement notices served on BHP Billiton.
Moore says his action came following a recent spate of deaths on BHP worksites and the 19 March 2009 directive of State Mining Engineer Martin Knee to mines inspectors to no longer issue improvement notices, but instead issue prohibition notices for breaches of safety conditions on BHP sites.
Moore claims his advice is that BHP has received 12 prohibition notices since the State Mining Engineer used his discretionary powers to direct inspectors to issue prohibition orders rather than improvement notices about a fortnight ago.
The Minister says while this figure may seem alarming at first glance, it must be noted that they could relate to relatively minor safety breaches.
Moore says in recent talks with BHP, I was given assurances by senior executives that they supported the State Government’s action and would co-operate to address this alarming and unacceptable situation.
The Minister said the advice he had received from the Department of Mines and Petroleum was that BHP Billiton had received almost 70 improvement notices in the past two years.
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