The President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Ged Kearney, spoke briefly at the Workers Memorial Day ceremony in Melbourne Victoria on 29 April 2013. Kearney reiterated the call for industrial manslaughter laws in Australia echoing the statements by the ACTU’s Michael Borowick yesterday and the ACTU media release.
In Australia and the United Kingdom, workplace health and safety compliance has been considered a prominent element of allegations of business “Red Tape“. On 21 January 2013, Victoria’s Treasurer, Kim Wells, announced new guidelines into red tape in that State’s government authorities and regulators. Wells’ media release states: “Stage one of the reform will focus … Continue reading “Red Tape Commissioner starts work on reform including OHS”
The chase for government and corporate effectiveness and productivity increases through cutting “red tape” has, historically, had dubious longterm benefits. The attack on the red tape of occupational health and safety (OHS) has been brutal in the United Kingdom and has occurred with an unforgiving, and misguided, tabloid media. Some in the UK media have been pointing out … Continue reading “Lessons for Australia from UK assault on OHS red tape”
Australia’s safety profession has a considerable challenge over the next few years, one for which it seems to be poorly prepared. The challenge comes not from new occupational health and safety (OHS) laws or new hazards but from entrenched ideologies. As the country moves to an increasing political conservatism, safety needs to prove it is … Continue reading “Safety profession needs to counter the influence of the red tape ideologues”
Recently, Australia’s Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released his 2026 Budget. Other than better availability of Australian Standards, there was little in it that directly affects workplace health and safety. But perhaps we need to look at this in a broader socioeconomic and political context.
From July 2026, the official Australian Standards for occupational health and safety (OHS) management will become freely available. According to page 142 of Budget Papers Number 2, the Australian government will “…. provide $55.2 million over four years from 2026–27 (and $11.6 million per year ongoing) to support implementation of reforms to increase productivity.”...
Australian occupational health and safety (OHS) is moving from a focus on interventions at the individual worker level to examination of the operational and managerial systems that may cause or encourage harm and incidents, especially in relation to psychological safety at work. Although a new book from the United States does not address OHS specifically, …
