The Act’s central concept is statutory incorporation by reference: the National Gas Law, as set out in the Schedule to the South Australian Act, is applied in New South Wales as the National Gas (NSW) Law (s 7). Complementary to that, regulations made under the South Australian Act’s Part 3 apply in NSW as the National Gas (NSW) Regulations (s 8). The Act deliberately treats the Law and Regulations as foreign-texts adopted into NSW, rather than reproducing their content.
Key definitional and interpretive arrangements:
- The Act sets interpretive equivalence between expressions used in the National Gas (NSW) Law and the Act itself; words and expressions have the same meanings in this Act as in the Law (s 3(2)). The Schedule Law’s definitions are supplemented by local definitions inserted by s 9(1), which specify terms such as adjacent area, Court (defined as the Supreme Court of NSW), designated Minister, Legislature of this jurisdiction, magistrate (a Judge of the Local Court of NSW), National Gas Law, and this jurisdiction (s 9(1)).
- The Act extends operation to coastal waters as if they were within State limits (s 5(1)), and defines coastal waters and adjacent area references by reference to the Commonwealth Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (s 5(2); s 9(1)). It also expresses the legislature’s intent that the Act operate to the maximum extent of NSW’s extra-territorial legislative power (s 6).
Administrative and intergovernmental concepts:
- Cross-vesting of powers is a structural concept in the Act: Commonwealth Ministers and Commonwealth bodies (AER, NCC, the Tribunal) are authorised to act in the State when exercising functions conferred by the national gas legislation of another participating jurisdiction (s 10). Likewise, Ministers of participating jurisdictions may act in or in relation to NSW under their national gas legislation (s 11), and the NSW Minister may perform functions conferred on Ministers by other jurisdictions’ national gas legislation (s 12).
- Clause 2 of Schedule 2 to the National Gas (NSW) Law is given effect in relation to any provision of this Act or any regulation forming part of the National Gas (NSW) Regulations, as if that provision formed part of the Law (s 15(1)). That imports specific conferral mechanisms within the adopted Law into the operation of this Act.
Regulatory continuity, validation and transition:
- The Act includes validation clauses for AER instruments and decisions made during the temporal gap between amendments enacted in South Australia and their commencement as applied in NSW. Instruments meeting specified criteria are taken to be valid from the application time (s 12B). Preparatory steps taken by the AER in the same temporal window are taken to satisfy the authorising law’s requirements for preparatory steps (s 12C).
- Schedule 1 provides further savings and transitional regulatory powers. Regulations may contain savings or transitional provisions consequent on enactment of this Act and other Acts, and such regulations may operate despite provisions of the adopted Law or Rules, and may take retrospective effect to the date of assent subject to safeguards against prejudicing third-party rights (sch 1 cl 1).
Fiscal and tax concepts:
- The Act provides a state-level tax exemption for duties or taxes in relation to "exempt matters", defined as transfers of assets or liabilities made for the purpose of compliance with ring-fencing requirements or separation required by an AER ring fencing determination, and which the Treasurer declares by Gazette notice to be exempt matters (s 13(1)-(2)).
Pipeline jurisdictional rules:
- For cross-boundary pipelines, actions taken under the national gas legislation in one participating jurisdiction are taken also to be taken under the national gas legislation of each participating jurisdiction in whose area a part of the pipeline is situated. There is a specific restriction: judicial review and other proceedings cannot be brought in the New South Wales Supreme Court to challenge a relevant Minister’s action relating to a cross-boundary distribution pipeline unless this jurisdiction has been determined to be the participating jurisdiction most closely connected to the pipeline (s 14(1)-(2)).
Regulatory-making power and review:
- The Governor may make regulations contemplated by the National Gas (NSW) Law (s 12A) and may make regulations necessary or convenient for carrying out this Act (s 16). The Minister must review the Act’s policy objectives and terms within five years of assent and table a report (s 20).
Collectively, these concepts create a framework where an externally drafted, multi-jurisdictional National Gas Law is imported into NSW, supplemented by local interpretive definitions, local regulation-making power, arrangements for inter-jurisdictional exercise of powers, transitional validation for regulator action, taxation treatment for structural compliance transfers, and special procedures for cross-boundary pipelines (ss 3-16; sch 1; s 20).