On 20 Mar 2001, at 10:55, David Strike wrote:

> As a number of people have, over the past eighteen months or so, made
> reference to the Queensland Industry Code of Practice relating to
> recreational diving - and because there appears to be some confusion over
> its intent, I've included the site where the document can be viewed:
> http://www.detir.qld.gov.au/hs/icp/icp007.pdf

Thanks for posting this Strike. Just glancing through the document,
I see nothing that should cause alarm by the general diving public.
At most it's a rough set of guidelines that, if used judiciously,
should make diving for folks in Oz safer. There is nothing that I find
that indicates that it's law, although I could see, by using the US
legal system, that if you operate outside it's paramaters, it could
be used against you in court. My jist is that it allows the operators
to cover their 6 while still allowing them the freedom to offer just
about any diving to people within that persons training limits.....

Mike


>
> Essentially it's directed at the dive operators rather than at the diving
> 'consumer', (although it obviously has a flow-on impact for all divers), and
> details things that they *should* do rather than what they *must* do!  :-)
>
> It should be regarded as a minimum standard; one that still leaves
> individual operators the freedom to impose their own restrictions on what
> diving practices they will allow.  (In which case - as elsewhere in the
> world - divers are free to choose an operator that best meets their own
> particular diving needs.)
>
> It's by no means perfect.  Few documents of this nature ever are.  It's
> unashamedly focussed on safety and aimed at helping protect operators - and
> thereby everyone who dives with them.
>
> A separate Code of Practice relating to Technical Diving - covering the use
> of mixed gasses, SCR's and CCR's - is still in the discussion stage and has
> yet to be finalised.
>
> In both instances they were compiled after extensive public discussion and
> input from all sectors of the diving community.  Not with the aim of
> imposing un-enforceable restrictions on divers, but rather to cause everyone
> involved in diving to think more carefully about safety.
>
> I know that many people are opposed to any sort of controls over diving.
> But given the potential for injury the only other alternative in a
> safety-conscious society is to accept government imposed legislation.
> Something that *would* be restrictive!  :-)
>
> Strike