In The Australian newspaper on 3 April 2012, Judith Sloan presents a useful summary of the status of the OHS harmonisation process. Many of her criticisms are valid but she has not realised that the new Work Health and Safety laws stopped being occupational health and safety laws some time ago. It is easier to … Continue reading “Is OHS harmonisation a dead parrot or is it just pining?”
Throughout 2011, Safe Work Australia (SWA) has been conducting consultative workshops in the development of the next ten-year National OHS Strategy. SafetyAtWorkBlog reported previously on the Melbourne meeting. SWA has released their report into that Melbourne meeting. The meeting had a set of criteria for the stakeholders to consider. Sadly, there was no forewarning of the issues to be … Continue reading “OHS Strategy to nowhere”
Another Australian politician has resigned to spend more time with his family but this time the family mantra is not tacked on to a struggling career in order to add moral weight to the political decision sadly many examples of dubious resignations are available. Most commentators believe that the Tasmanian Premier, David Bartlett’s decision is … Continue reading “Is politics anti-family?”
For many years the Safety Institute of Australia has been uncertain in its media relations. On most of the important OHS issues in the last 10 years the SIA has either been silent for the fear of being “overtly political” or been too slow to react. Its past media releases have almost always been to … Continue reading “The Safety Institute discovers the media”
Less than 24 hours after mentioning the fragility of Australia’s OHS harmonisation process, confirmation comes from an unexpected source, Kristina Keneally, Premier of New South Wales (pictured right). It would seem that Keneally’s decision to change her stance on OHS is more to do with a general package of industrial relations and, union-friendly, reforms, as reported in … Continue reading “Harmonious fragility or fragile harmony – OHS and politics in Australia”
On Sunday 25 July 2010, during the first debate of Australia’s election campaign, Prime Minister Julia Gillard used OHS harmonisation as an example of an achievement that she has been able to introduce that has benefited the Australian people. The process is in a public hiatus at the moment that began before the election was called. Much … Continue reading “Australian PM mentions OHS harmonisation in election debate”
The Australian Government’s plans to harmonise the country’s OHS legislation will fail. In the Australian newspaper on 6 May 2010 the president of the Safety, Rehabilitation & Compensation Licensees Association, Dean Stone, said “Harmonisation was aimed at having the same law in force across the country but it is simply not going to be able to do … Continue reading “Harmonisation strategy will fail and legal costs for OHS will increase”