A new Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) report says government reform is needed to meet international standards for ‘before you dig’ services to avoid costly and potentially fatal underground utility service strikes.
Based on available data, Before You Dig claims more than 15,000 underground utility strikes occur each year in Australia, costing the national economy $4.6 billion through project delays, service disruption and productivity loss, and exposing workers and communities to risk. Most of these incidents are preventable.
New research from BYDA examines why these incidents persist and has identified practical reforms governments can implement to improve safety, infrastructure resilience, and project productivity.
“Australia is well behind comparable jurisdictions such as France, Canada and the United States in the legal and regulatory frameworks governing excavation safety,” BYDA CEO Mell Greenall said. “The problem in Australia is systemic rather than behavioural. While responsibility for preventing strikes often sits with frontline workers, the power to improve underlying conditions rests with governments, regulators, and asset owners.
“What we’re talking about is a 40-year-old system in a high-risk digital age. It is a fragmented information ecosystem that remains largely static and document-based, yet one with consequences for all.
“In short, the evidence shows the current system is no longer keeping pace with the scale and complexity of Australia’s infrastructure program,” Ms Greenall added.
Australia left behind
Legal requirements, the availability of industry guidance and codes of practice, and enforcement mechanisms and penalties in countries such as France, Canada and the USA are all more advanced than those currently available in Australia. By contrast, France has a comprehensive legal regime mandating ‘before you dig’ notifications at the national level, while Canada has shared responsibility embedded in law while the US equips federal regulators with powers to reinforce or address violations of pipeline safety over and above state responses.
Government leadership can make a difference
BYDA’s research has identified policy areas where government action can improve safety outcomes and reduce service disruptions, including:
* Nationally mandating a BYDA enquiry before excavation within WHS, Electricity and Gas
Regulations governing hazardous work (NSW is currently the only state that mandates the BYDA referral service);
* improving the quality and accessibility of underground asset data, including minimum standards and digital data sharing; and
* using national data insights to support regulators, enabling targeted enforcement, education, and
industry improvement initiatives.
“These reforms do not require building a new system. Rather, they involve strengthening the legal and regulatory environment so the existing ecosystem can operate effectively. This is an immediate opportunity for government leadership,” Ms Greenall said.
“We must act now, before a major service outage or fatality event. The research in this report highlights an unavoidable situation: incremental improvement will not be enough. Decisions must be made now to prevent what we see as an inevitable serious incident involving an underground service strike.
“If nothing changes, the next fatality or outage is not a surprise – it’s a choice.”
