The pursuit of Premier Dan Andrews and the Victorian Government for Industrial Manslaughter reached a frenzy in Parliament on September 4 2020, when Liberal Parliamentarian Tim Smith expressed his opposition to the extension of Victoria’s state of emergency. His florid speech masked his principal, and admirable, aim, to hold the Government accountable....
Ministerial accountability. Occupational health and safety (OHS). Leadership. Industrial Manslaughter. These issues have existed in various combinations in various jurisdictions and discussed by many people. At the moment in Australia, this combination has in relation to COVID19 but some of the discussion contains tenuous links and some is masking long held political agendas. Much of …
So, Victoria now has Industrial Manslaughter laws. Now what? Within days of the activation of these laws a worker died at the Thales worksite in Bendigo. This location is covered by the Federal Work Health and Safety laws, but this has not stopped social media from mentioning Industrial Manslaughter. It seems now that every work-related …
The Victorian (Labor) Government promised a review of WorkSafe Victoria’s enforcement policies in its 2014 campaign pledges as per the quote below. The independent occupational health and safety (OHS) review was conducted in 2016 with a lot of public submissions. The review’s final report was presented to the Victorian Minister for Finance, Robin Scott in … Continue reading “Will we ever get to see Victoria’s latest OHS review?”
So Ben Carroll is the new Premier of Victoria. He has made the obvious and unavoidable decision to call for a Royal Commission into that state’s construction sector and the government’s “Big Build” project. But Carroll was also the Minister for WorkCover for several years. He spoke at safety awards nights, conferences, seminars and Workers’ …
As I write this, hundreds of workers’ memorial services are taking place around the world. I usually attend the Melbourne, Victoria, event and wish I could have been there today because one speaker, Lana Cormie, transcended the usual politics and platitudes to outline a broader strategy for occupational health and safety (OHS) reform....
Earlier this month, I was critical of occupational health and safety (OHS) and farmers and asked “So what can WorkSafe teach them about safety that farmers don’t already know?” The death of dairy farmer Brad Collins following an incident involving a quad bike is the type of death that could have occurred and been reported …
