What it does
The Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) Act 2012 applies the national Rail Safety National Law as the law of South Australia and supplements it with South Australian-specific provisions for drug and alcohol testing, evidentiary procedures, and transitional arrangements. The Act is the primary legislative instrument regulating rail safety across South Australia's commercial railway network.
The Act operates in two distinct layers. The state wrapper (Parts 1 to 5 of the Act proper) provides South Australian definitions, drug and alcohol testing procedures, no-double-jeopardy protections, transitional provisions, and limitations on which South Australian administrative Acts apply to the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR). The Schedule to the Act sets out the Rail Safety National Law (referred to as the "Rail Safety National Law (South Australia)" once applied), which runs to ten Parts and two Schedules and contains the substantive national scheme.
Section 4 is the operative application provision: the Law set out in the Schedule applies as a law of South Australia, may be referred to as the Rail Safety National Law (South Australia), and forms part of the Act.
Section 7 carves out a number of South Australian administrative statutes from applying to the ONRSR or to instruments made under the Law. The Freedom of Information Act 1991 (SA), Ombudsman Act 1972 (SA), Public Finance and Audit Act 1987 (SA), Public Sector Act 2009 (SA), Public Sector (Honesty and Accountability) Act 1995 (SA), State Procurement Act 2004 (SA), and State Records Act 1997 (SA) are all excluded, except where they apply to a South Australian State entity exercising functions under the Law.