Victoria is the latest Australian State to introduce laws into Parliament that establish a licencing scheme for labour hire operators. The Labour Hire Licensing Bill 2017 was read into Parliament on 14 December 2017 (Hansard, pages 55-61)
The Bill is compatible with the laws passed recently in Queensland and South Australia which apply a universal licencing scheme rather than a sectoral one as preferred by some organisations. This should make the scheme easier to administer as it removes demarcation disputes and, as pointed out by the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Luke Donnellan, removes loopholes of opportunity for avoiding obligations – a critical consideration in a sector that has shown such disregard for legal obligations. Continue reading “Victoria joins the push for licencing labour hire”
One of the most useful tools on any website is a Search function. When writing a SafetyAtWorkBlog article I regularly use the Search function (on the right of this page, or the bottom of your screen, depending on what device you are using) to remind me of what I have written previously. This avoids doubling up on topics or perspectives but also provides a thematic thread and consistency through the articles. For instance, try “quad bikes”, SWMS, Tooma or Quinlan.
On 12 December 2017, part of Australia’s screen and television industry held a forum in Sydney about sexual harassment in the sector and what could be done to reduce this workplace hazard. This initiative occurred a day before an 
Australia’s Office of the Chief Economist released a report on December 6 2017 whose relevance to occupational health and safety (OHS) is not immediately apparent but contributes to understanding the context of OHS in modern business processes. 
Workplace safety lawyers are regular contributors to occupational health and safety (OHS) journals, usually writing about some OHS case law or recent, topical prosecution. Occasionally they write a more research-based article. The November 2017 edition of