By TANIA PHILLIPS
TWEED is set to be part of the second interagency trial aimed at keeping people safe on the water this summer.
Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services and Tweed MP Geoff Provest said a co-ordinated on-water operations between Roads and Maritime Services, NSW Department of Primary Industries and the NSW Police Force has arrived on the Tweed.
Mr Provest and Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn announced the second interagency trial this week.
The first trial was announced in early November at Sans Souci, which covers Port Hacking, Georges River and Botany Bay.
Mr Provest said five officers from the three agencies would conduct joint patrols along the Tweed River and off the NSW Coast, to prevent boating accidents and improve safety.
“This co-ordinated approach will be much more effective and will enable officers from each agency to enforce boating safety measures including the wearing of life-jackets,” Mr Provest said.
“The exercise will also increase our coverage of the Tweed River so we can continue to make sure that people are behaving responsibly on these waterways, especially the areas that are known hot spots.”
Officers participating in the trial will receive training to ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills to conduct different sorts of compliance checks, Mr Provest said.
“One of our aims is to conduct all relevant compliance checks simultaneously so it’s much more efficient and minimises the disruption to commercial and recreational boats,” Mr Provest said.
“Fisheries Officers will be able to check boat licences and make sure people are wearing life-jackets. Roads and Maritime Boating Safety Officers will also be able to inspect the size and bag limits of fish caught.
Mr Provest said by pooling resources, agencies are increasing their operational capacity and providing better on-water services across the board.
The waterways in Tweed are extremely busy in summer, which makes safety a very important issue,” Mr Provest said.
“Police officers will also be able to conduct random breath tests on any marked Police, Fisheries or Maritime vessel,” Deputy Commissioner Burn said.
“This will mean all our boats are potentially ‘floating RBT units’ with police on board – so it has never been more risky to drink and drive on the water.”
The trial, which will run until 28 February next year, is an outcome of the Marine Compliance Taskforce, a two-year strategy announced in March to reform NSW Government on-water compliance operations.
