The plant owner has numerous responsibilities related to hazardous areas. These responsibilities are stated in AS/NZS 60079.2017 book 14 and 17, and include:

• Ensuring that systems are in place so that all hazardous areas are correctly identified and documented.
  
• Ensuring that systems are in place so that electrical equipment in hazardous areas is correctly selected, installed, tested, inspected and maintained.
  
• Ensuring that people employed to action hazardous area work are competent
  
• Providing physical and financial resources to ensure that the hazardous area installations are safe.
  

The employee also has certain responsibilities related to hazardous areas.
These include:

• Only actioning tasks which they are competent to do.
• Completing the tasks in accordance with the applicable standards and regulations.
  

Plant owners and employees with hazardous area issues can obtain assistance from numerous sources including:

• In-house experts
  
• External specialist consultants
  
• Standards Australia