Application for certification of the Western Australian rail access regime

On 12 May 2010 the Council received an application from the Premier of Western Australia, the Hon Colin Barnett MLA, under s44M of the Trade Practices Act (TPA) for the certification of the Western Australian Rail Access Regime established under the Railways (Access) Act 1998 (WA) and the Railways (Access) Code 2000.  A copy of the application and legislation is available under the application tab to the left.

The Council invited written submissions on the application from interested parties. The closing date for submissions was 17 June 2010.  The Council received five submissions in response to the application.

The Council released its draft recommendation on 17 August 2010.  The Council's preliminary view is that the WA Rail Access Regime meets the requirements for certification and should be certified as effective until 31 December 2015. 

Interested parties were invited to make written submissions in response to the Council's draft recommendation with the submission period closing on Thursday 16 September 2010.  The Council received four submissions which are available for download under the Submissions on draft recommendation tab. 

The submission from Roy Hill Infrastructure Pty Ltd raised a number of issues that the Council considered it should allow the applicant and other interested parties to respond to before finalising its recommendation and accordingly called for further submissions. The submission period ended on 6 October 2010 and the Council received three supplementary submissions which are available under the Submission on draft recommendation tab.

On 14 December 2010 the Council provided its Final Recommendation to the decision-making Commonwealth Minister, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon David Bradbury, on the application for certification of the Western Australian Rail Access regime.

On 11 February 2011, the Hon David Bradbury, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer decided to certify the WA Rail Access Regime as an ‘effective access regime'.

On 11 February 2011, the Council released its Final Recommendation.  The Council had recommended that the WA Rail Access Regime should not be certified.

Copies of the Minister's decision and statement of reasons and the Council's Final Recommendation are available under the Final recommendation and decision tab on the left.

If you would like to be kept informed of developments with the application, please download and complete the Registration of interest form below and email it to warail@ncc.gov.au or fax it to (03) 9285 7477.

Registration of interest (RTF, 327KB)