OZschwitz slave pen: Jail, fines for accidentally digging up power lines

TOUGH new penalties including five-year prison terms await contractors who interrupt the electricity and gas supply.

Legislation for the stiff measures follows a series of power failures in Sydney's central business district in March and April.

It includes fines of up to $22,000 for individuals and $440,000 for corporations who fail to take adequate measures to avoid cutting into power cables or gas lines when digging.

The legislation, which passed the upper house this week, puts the onus on the contractor, not the company, to ensure cables and pipelines are not cut.

The city's main electricity supplier, EnergyAustralia, has admitted it may be months before new equipment is installed to reduce the possibility of further large power failures.

In response, the Government has introduced a "dial before you dig" telephone service for contractors to check on cables in the area they plan to excavate. They face five years' jail if they cut power or gas supplies.

But there are doubts that the service will give contractors sufficiently detailed information about underground cables.

The Greens upper house MP John Kaye said that if a backhoe operator was working to instructions and a break occurred, "it is the operator who is personally responsible, not his boss".

LNK

OZschwitz slave pen: Jail, fines for accidentally digging up power lines

OZschwitz slave pen: Jail, fines for accidentally digging up power lines

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order