Search Results for: "red tape"

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Increasing demand on standards should cause the Australian Government to plan longterm

In August 2009, SafetyAtWorkBlog reported that Standards Australia had been hit hard by the global financial crisis.  To our knowledge, circumstances have not changed but a report in the Australian Financial Review (not available online) on 17 February talked positively about the future of the organisation that publishes the Australian Standards, SAI Global.  Australian Standards are widely used by … Continue reading “Increasing demand on standards should cause the Australian Government to plan longterm”

Missed OHS issues in insulation debate

The future of Australia’s Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, is uncertain as he struggles for credibility in the wake of furious political attacks. In the various media discussions there are hints of other issues, some related to OHS in Australia, that demand attention. Australian Standards and safety planning Chris Bowen, Minister for Financial Services defended Garrett’s handling of the … Continue reading “Missed OHS issues in insulation debate”

Coordinated raid on illegal workers in Australia

Illegal migrant workers are not a big problem in Australia.  Those who are caught are usually working outside of the allowances of their tourist or student visas.  Being an island nation and the bottom of the world, Australia does not have border protection issues to the extent of the United States or Europe. That’s an … Continue reading “Coordinated raid on illegal workers in Australia”

OHS model law remains divisive

An article in the Australian Financial Review (not available on line) on 16 October 2009 provided some additional legal opinions on the implementation and aims of Australia’s draft Safe Work Bill. Other than Michael Tooma’s well established thoughts on the draft law, Liberty Sanger of Maurice Blackburn, a law firm with strong trade union links, … Continue reading “OHS model law remains divisive”

Harmonised OHS laws – winners and losers

Andrew Douglas, an Australian OHS and employment relations lawyer, has followed up some his points made in a podcast on 2 October 2009 in an article available on his firm’s website. Part of the article says So what is different about the Model Act and how will it be interpreted? When interpreting an Act you always turn to … Continue reading “Harmonised OHS laws – winners and losers”

Harmonisation documents available but path is far from settled

On 25 September 2009, Australia’s Workplace Relations Ministers Council (WRMC) agreed to release the draft legislation for public comment. According to one media report, the New South Wales Finance Minister, Joe Tripodi, “…moved at the [WRMC] meeting to have union prosecutions included in the new laws and was defeated by eight votes to one.” The documents are now available for download HERE. … Continue reading “Harmonisation documents available but path is far from settled”

Australian survey on attitudes to OHS and laws

Firstly there is an apology for having statistics dominate SafetyAtWorkBlog this week however everything became available all at once. An earlier article mentioned some recent OHS statistics that have been released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions.  Below is the SafetyAtWorkBlog interpretation of the survey report. The survey was undertaken by an independent research … Continue reading “Australian survey on attitudes to OHS and laws”