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”
Rex Hoy of Safe Work Australia (SWA) spoke on 1 June 2010 at the Australian Senate Estimates hearing (around page 44) and confirmed progress on the draft OHS regulations and codes of practice. The draft Hansard reports Hoy saying: “Just to cover the areas we are working on: there will be model regulations covering administrative arrangements … Continue reading “Safe Work Australia at Senate Estimates – harmonisation latest”
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”
The national OHS Officer of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Deborah Vallance, provided her perspective on the tweaking of Australia’s OHS laws to the StickTogether radio program on 25 April 2010. (The interview is at the 16 minute mark in the podcast) Vallance says that the complexity and overlap of laws is often overstated but that there are … Continue reading “Union view of OHS harmonisation and data on the social cost of workplace safety”
“The conference inside is a bit of a sham” claimed Brian Boyd, Victorian Trades Hall Secretary at the first meeting into the harmonisation of Australia’s workers compensation laws. “It’s really another hidden agenda about trying to harmonise workers comp after we fully know already, they’ve messed up harmonisation of OHS.”
The current edition of Lawyers Weekly includes some thoughts from Australian lawyers on the impact of the harmonisation of Australia’s OHS laws. Michael Tooma of Norton Rose believes that the new positive duty of officers has sparked interest in improving corporate governance. Graeme Smith of Freehills has seen an improved recognition of lawyers’ roles in … Continue reading “OHS lawyers see opportunities in harmonisation of laws”
SafetyAtWorkBlog has learnt that the national harmonisation process for workers’ compensation has formally begun with one of the first meetings being scheduled in Melbourne at the end of March 2010 and organised by Safe Work Australia. The two-day meeting is invitation only and invitations have been sent to relevant stakeholders – insurers, rehabilitation, providers, unions…… The meeting is almost an introduction to … Continue reading “Harmonisation of Australia’s workers’ compensation system begins”