The Australian Financial Review has obtained a copy of the 470-page report of the Review Panel into OHS Model Law prior to its release by the Australian government. The most significant recommendation reported by the paper is that unions will not be allowed to prosecute for OHS offences. This entitlement by unions in New South … Continue reading “National OHS report leaked to Australian newspaper”
Australia’s Productivity Commission has released a report into the national regulation of plastics and chemicals. The supplementary report has additional topicality as it is released a week before the Review Panel into Model OHS Law presents its report to the government. The key points of the Productivity Commission report are “The Productivity Commission has recently … Continue reading “Government report into plastics and chemicals”
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review of 20 January 2009, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, has indicated a preference for the Workplace Relations Ministerial Council to “create an executive agency that did not need the approval of parliament”. The article goes on to report Gillard’s OHS plan “the … Continue reading “Gillard’s plans for new OHS agency”
Every year newspapers and organisations undertake a “year in review”. OHS regulators are no different. As more statistics become available of the next few weeks, SafetyAtWorkBlog will provide the latest OHS statistics for 2008. The most recent are below. Western Australia According to a media release by WorkSafe WA: “In 2005/06, WA recorded 12 traumatic … Continue reading “Australian 2008 workplace statistics”
Over the next few weeks, many Australian law firms are running information seminars on the government’s Fair Work Bill. This legislation will change the way that workplaces are managed, particularly in the area of personnel management. The overlap with OHS will come through the increasingly contentious issue of “union right of entry”. Frequently unions request … Continue reading “OHS impact of the Fair Work Australia Bill”
Earlier this year, SafetyAtWorkBlog reported on the attack on a nurse in the Torres Strait Islands north of Australia, the investigation of the issue by Queensland Health and the mechanisms introduced to get the working conditions and accommodation up to a safe level. In this case there was a clear link between occupational health and … Continue reading “Management failures and a rape of a five-month-old baby”
Last Friday the Australian Jockeys Association issued a media release in support of their safety campaign for increased compensation. The campaign was surprising on a number of points. The safety campaign is aimed to “help jockeys manage the risks inherent in their work”. Over the last few years there has been a marked increase in … Continue reading “When a safety campaign is not a safety campaign”