Sea Installations Act 1987

Subject to this Act and the regulations, the laws, whether written or unwritten, in force in a State for the time being (other than laws of the Commonwealth) and any instrument having effect under any of those laws, apply, as provided by, and by force of, this section, in relation to sea installations installed, or being installed, in the adjacent area of the State and so apply as if that area were part of that State and of the Commonwealth.

The laws referred to in subsection (1) do not include laws that are substantive criminal laws, or laws of criminal investigation, procedure and evidence, within the meaning of Schedule 1 to the Crimes at Sea Act 2000, but nothing in this Act derogates from the operation of that Act.

A law shall be taken to be a law in force in a State notwithstanding that it applies to part only of the State.

Without limiting the operation of subsection (1), a law or instrument referred to in that subsection relating to a State applies:

in relation to:

an act or omission that takes place on or in the vicinity of; and

a matter that exists or arises in relation to;

in relation to a person who:

is on such a sea installation;

is in the adjacent area for a reason of the kind referred to in paragraph (a); or

is on or in the vicinity of a ship, aircraft, structure or installation, or equipment or other property, that is in the adjacent area for a reason of the kind referred to in paragraph (a); and

in relation to a person in respect of the person carrying on any operation or doing any work in the adjacent area for a reason of the kind referred to in paragraph (a).

This section does not:

give to a law of a State an operation, as law of the Commonwealth, that it would not have, as law of the State, if the adjacent area of the State were within so much of the part of the area described in Schedule 1 to the Petroleum Act under the heading that refers to that State as is on the landward side of the adjacent area;

extend to the provisions of any law or instrument in so far as those provisions, as applied by this Act, would be inconsistent with this Act or another law of the Commonwealth;

apply so as to impose any tax;

apply so as to confer or purport to confer any part of the judicial power of the Commonwealth on a court, tribunal, authority or officer of a State; or

apply so as to purport to confer on a court of a State any power that cannot, under the Constitution, be conferred by the Parliament on such a court.

This section does not limit the operation that any law or instrument has apart from this section.

The regulations may provide that such of the provisions of a law or instrument referred to in subsection (1) as are specified in the regulations do not apply by reason of this section or so apply subject to such modifications as are specified in the regulations.

Notwithstanding anything in this section or in section 49, the regulations that may be made for the purposes of subsection (7) include regulations having the effect that provisions as modified by the regulations make provision for and in relation to investing a court of a State with federal jurisdiction.