The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has published its Compliance Strategy 2023/27. It builds on the modern regulatory foundations laid out in its predecessor and sets out six key elements. It is a data-driven, risk-based and proportionate approach to compliance that minimises impact on industry while maximising safety and environmental outcomes.
On a practical level, the strategy is implemented through AMSA’s annual National Compliance Plans which detail specific inspection and education focus areas for a given 12-month period. AMSA Executive Director of Operations, Michael Drake, says the authority uses incident and inspection data to identify and target emerging risks to safety across the domestic and merchant maritime industries. He said, “”Once we know where our efforts need to be strategically directed, our proportionate approach means we adjust our compliance response according to an individual’s willingness to comply with their legal obligations.”
He further explained that, “A more collaborative approach is used with operators who voluntarily comply, while on the other end of the compliance spectrum, a more punitive approach is used with operators who disregard and resist their legal obligations.”
We aim to simplify explanations of the law, educate and assist our regulated communities to comply, monitor their compliance, reward voluntary and deter non-compliance, and last but not least, build the compliance skills and capacity of our workforce
amsa regulatory compliance
Here are the six key elements
1 Simplify and explain the law
The regulated community must be aware what the law is and how it applies to them and their activities before they are able to willingly and voluntarily comply.
The intent is to:
– Keep the law simple and make obligations clear.
– Make access to all elements of the law simple.
– Make compliance easy.
– Develop generic aids to explain how the law works.
2 Educate and assist the regulated community comply with the law
The regulated community can rely on AMSA to help them comply with the law.
The intent is to:
– Develop and deliver education programs that are informed by the National Compliance plan or intelligence to encourage voluntary compliance. This may be entity, operation or event specific.
– Engage with the regulated community to find out where they are having difficulty and look for ways to alleviate the problems.
– Provide information and resources to encourage and facilitate compliance.
3 Monitor compliance
The regulated community should know that AMSA will strategically monitor compliance to achieve its aims and to ensure a level playing field.
The intent is to:
– Publish an annual National Compliance plan that focus on identified risks informed by safety data and intelligence.
– Tailor monitoring to encourage change in compliance behaviour.
– Share learnings from monitoring activities both within and outside AMSA.
– Work with compliance partners to avoid duplication and share data.
– Use data and analysis to better understand compliant and non-compliant behaviour.
4 Reward voluntary compliance
The regulated community should benefit from compliant behaviour because it advances AMSA’s aims, reduces regulatory costs and sets a benchmark for others to aspire to.
The intent is to:
– Reduce regulatory burden on those who comply.
– Develop ‘trusted’ partnerships.
– Recognise and promote industry exemplars.
– Consider ways to provide service benefits in interactions with AMSA.
– Explore opportunities for alternate compliance delivery models.
5 Deter non-compliance
The regulated community should know that AMSA will apply all means available within the law to deter opportunistic or deliberate non-compliance.
The intent is to:
– Develop data and programs to identify non-compliance.
– Develop resources to investigate high risk, deliberate or repeated non-compliance.
– Work with compliance partners to target those who offend in multiple jurisdictions or legislative regimes.
– Increase regulatory oversight of those who do not comply.
– Publicise enforcement outcomes.
6 Build compliance skills and capacity in our workforce
The regulated community must have confidence that AMSA’s staff, and those of its compliance partners, are appropriately trained and resourced to deliver AMSA’s compliance activities in a manner that reflects the Authority’s values, its Regulatory Approach and the principles set out in the Compliance and Enforcement Policy.
The intent is to:
– Allocate adequate resources to deliver AMSA’s compliance function.
– Develop strategic inter-agency partnerships.
– Educate AMSA’s workforce and reward excellence.
– Support compliance functions with appropriate systems and methods.
– Invest in data, analysis and forecasting capacity.
Click for more detailed information about the Compliance Strategy
