The Victorian Government has repeatedly claimed that new Work Health and Safety laws would cost billions of dollars to introduce. It has justified this political decision with a summary of a report produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in April 2012. SafetyAtWorkBlog applied for the full report under Freedom of Information (FOI) and was rejected.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet’s FOI Officer indicated that the full report existed but that it was not being released as the FOI Act
“…exempts from disclosure a document that has been prepared by a Minister or on his or her behalf or by an agency for the purpose of submission for consideration by the Cabinet.”
The rejection is difficult to understand as the government had already released a 34 page summary.
SafetyAtWorkBlog has been very critical of the summary report due to the amount of disclaimers, equivocations and selected data sources in the PwC report. The estimated costs have appeared in discussions about the Work Health and Safety laws in other States so the full analysis of the laws by PwC would be enlightening. It was hoped that the full report would provide additional background and context to discussing the “costs of safety” but that is not to be.
Great stuff Kevin. Could you tell me the process by which you apply to get this information? I know they knocked you back, but perhaps persistent attempts from a variety of people can pay dividends.
Jon Grennell.
Jon, I was very clear on the document I wanted and then began th very simple process through http://www.foi.vic.gov.au/. The response came within a month.
Thank you Kevin. I\’ll chase this up.
It makes you wonder about the \”transparency\” associated with these processes. Perhaps there would be value in allowing the public to view, and provide feedback (aka: CONSULTATION – a largely promoted component of the OHS Act in itself).
As a safety professional I know that I would be very keen to read the contents of this report. Thank-you for trying to get a copy of this report for the intention of informing your readers. Appreciated.
I’m with you Kevin. I too have been mystified by the costings given by PwC especially as here in Victoria we were being told that the harmonised laws were based on what we’ve already got in Victoria. So where do all these extra costs come from?
Regards
Irena Davis
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