About the national system

The National System for Domestic Commercial Vessel Safety provides a consistent approach to safety for owners, operators, and crew of commercial vessels working in Australia.

Commercial vessels working in Australia need to have a certificate of survey and a certificate of operation—unless exempt. People working on these vessels must have a certificate of competency.

History of the national system

On 1 July 2013, the National System for Domestic Commercial Vessel Safety commenced. The national system brought eight sets of rules together into one regulatory scheme and is based on nationally‐agreed standards for commercial vessels.

The broad coverage of the national system and the diverse nature of stakeholders means that many of the regulatory and standards changes affect a wide variety of class 1, 2, 4 vessel owners and operators, and fishing industry representatives who have diverse interests, business models and widespread geographic distribution.

We developed a series of committees to speak on behalf of the different industry groups about our regulations and standards related to the national system.

These committees are:

• Domestic Commercial Vessel Industry Advisory Committee (DCVIAC)
• Fishing Industry Advisory Committee (FIAC)

Advisory groups are a critical part of the process to make sure that safety standards and regulations adequately and appropriately address risks associated with domestic commercial operations and the impact of changes on other sectors.