Government reform is urgently needed to meet international standards for ‘before you dig’ services to avoid costly and potentially fatal underground utility service strikes, according to new research from Before You Dig Australia (BYDA).
More than 15,000 utility strikes occur each year in Australia—almost half of them telco assets—costing the national economy $4.6 billion through project delays, service disruption, and productivity loss, and exposing workers and communities to serious risk.
New research from Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) examines why these incidents persist and identifies practical reforms—including a national mandate—that governments can implement to significantly improve safety, infrastructure resilience, and project productivity.
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“Australia is well behind comparable jurisdictions such as France, Canada, and the United States in the legal and regulatory frameworks governing excavation safety,” BYDA CEO Mell Greenall said.
“The problem in Australia is systemic rather than behavioural. While responsibility for preventing strikes often sits with frontline workers, the power to improve underlying conditions rests with governments, regulators, and asset owners.
“What we’re talking about is a 40-year-old system in a high-risk digital age. It is a fragmented information ecosystem that remains largely static and document-based, yet one with consequences for all.”
Legal requirements, the availability of industry guidance and codes of practice, and enforcement mechanisms and penalties in countries such as France, Canada, and the US are all much more advanced than what is currently available here in Australia.
France has a comprehensive legal regime mandating ‘before you dig’ notifications at the national level, Canada has shared responsibility embedded in law, and the US equips federal regulators with powers to reinforce or address violations of pipeline safety over and above state responses.
BYDA’s research consistently identifies several policy areas where government action can materially improve safety outcomes and reduce costly service disruptions, including:
- Nationally mandating a BYDA enquiry before excavation within WHS, Electricity and Gas Regulations governing hazardous work. NSW is currently the only state that mandates the BYDA referral service, albeit only for electricity and gas.
- Improving the quality and accessibility of underground asset data, including minimum standards and digital data sharing, which could save $782 million a year.
- Using national data insights to support regulators, enabling targeted enforcement, education, and industry improvement initiatives, consistency of legislation that could save $322 million per annum.
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“These reforms do not require building a new system. Rather, they involve strengthening the legal and regulatory environment so the existing ecosystem can operate effectively. This is an immediate opportunity for government leadership,” Greenall said.
“We must act now, before a major service outage or fatality event. The research in this report highlights an unavoidable situation: incremental improvement will not be enough. Decisions must be made now to prevent what we see as an inevitable serious incident involving an underground service strike.
“If nothing changes, the next fatality or outage is not a surprise—it’s a choice.”
