Category: Andrews

OHS is largely overlooked even on its special day

The mainstream media did cover the Australian Labor Party’s statement about workplace safety and industrial manslaughter laws. These issues also featured, unsurprisingly, in some of the commemorations on International Workers Memorial Day. But the issue was largely left floating, irretrievable in the political swimming pool.

David Martin-Guzman, writing for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), painted the ALP announcement as advocating on behalf Australia’s most militant trade union, the Construction Forestry Mining Maritime and Energy Union (CFMEU). This approach sadly places any OHS activity purely in the context of industrial relations. That is likely placing OHS as only part of Human Resources. OHS is its own profession, has its own principles and is supported by its own legislation and government regulator.

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What is the “All Victorians Infrastructure Fund”?

ON 22 November 2018, two days before the State Election, the Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance released a document called the “Release of costing of election commitment“.  Most of the media attention was on the removal of a self-imposed “debt cap” by Treasurer, Tim Pallas, but there is an interesting footnote that seems to involve using some of WorkSafe Victoria’s premium income as a dividend to fund infrastructure.

Attachment A – “Summary of Labor’s 2018 Election Commitments” – lists the following table (figures are in millions):

Footnote 3 says:

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What will the ALP do for Victoria on OHS?

archive photo of Premier Daniel Andrews

The Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party has had its 2018 policy platform available online for sometime.  Given that the State election  is on November 24, 2018 it is timely to look at the ALP’s new, or restated, commitments.

In its section on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) the ALP claims that its support of WorkSafe Victoria’s

“…behavioural change campaigns has seen a reduction over time in workplace injury and death, however there remain some businesses which continue to show little regard for the safety of their workforce.” (page 17)

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Industrial Manslaughter laws? Let’s talk about safety

On October 29 2018, RMIT University and the Safety Institute of Australia conducted a forum on Industrial Manslaughter laws.  The mix of presenters offered a respectful discussion on the issue but also illustrated where such proposed legal changes fit.  The event was organised and hosted by Gloria Kyriacou-Morosinotto whose introduction listed the questions we should all be asking about the Industrial Manslaughter laws proposed for Victoria.

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Arts Wellbeing Collective gets a future

In November 2017, SafetyAtWorkBlog wrote about a pilot occupational health and safety (OHS) and wellness program created by the Victorian Arts Centre.  At the time the future of this very good program was in doubt as continuing funding was not available.

On August 30 2018, Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, pledged some funding to the Arts Wellbeing Collective.  How much funding has not been revealed but providing a future for the program is a sound OHS and political move.

A major attraction of the Arts Wellbeing Collective is that it was an initiative from outside the established OHS and Human Resources networks.  This cuts out a lot of baggage but also risks acting without an understanding of what has gone before.

Perhaps more importantly, this program is not a response to the Weinstein issues or the #metoo agenda.  It was developed prior to both of these events but will benefit from the profiles these tragedies have created. All strength to it.

Kevin Jones

Solar panel pledge incorporates workplace safety

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced a State-supported program to install solar  panels on an estimation of 65,00 homes if his Labor Party is re-elected this November.  This election campaign announcement immediately reminds voters of the last government-sponsored “green” program, the Home Insulation Scheme which, amongst other results, lead to the deaths five workers.

Unsurprisingly,

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Objections, support and deterrence

Several of the articles in the Safety At Work special edition on Industrial Manslaughter mentioned in a previous post were from a July 2004 Building Trades Unions Conference at which Reverend Fred Nile, Katy Gallagher and John Della Bosca spoke.  Below are some of the interesting quotes raised but before we reach them, in August 2004, the Federal Government, through its then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews, issued a media release saying:

“This is in stark contrast to the ACT’s punitive industrial manslaughter law which simply places employers and employees in an adversarial workplace setting. Industrial manslaughter laws are unnecessary and can only create uncertainty for employers and employees.”

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