WORKSAFE WESTERN AUSTRALIA — CODES OF
PRACTICE
12. Ms M.J. HAMMAT to the Minister for Industrial
Relations:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment
to protecting the health and safety of Western Australian workers. Can the
minister update the house on the work being undertaken by this government to
protect Western Australians from inappropriate behaviour in the workplace?
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON
replied:
I am pleased to answer the question from the member for
Mirrabooka, who has spent a lifetime advocating on behalf of working people and
also on behalf of women and who is an example of the high-quality female
candidates that the Labor Party has supported over the years. The previous
member for Mirrabooka was another example of that type of high-quality candidate
who has come to this place on behalf of the Labor Party. That was done by
affirmative action, which, of course, the Liberal Party opposes.
Today,
I was pleased to support the release of three codes of practice by the WorkSafe
Western Australia Commissioner. I intended going to the launch, but
because of the protest action I was not able to join him for the launch of the Code
of practice on workplace behaviour, the Code of practice on
psychological hazards in the workplace, and the Code of practice on
violence and aggression at work, which provide guidance to employers on
managing their responsibilities to protect workers from harm in the workplace.
The existing code of practice—the
Code of practice on violence, aggression and bullying at work—was
published in 2014 under the former
government. Obviously, that proved inadequate as Caitlyn Rintoul from The
West Australian has demonstrated by exposing the issues in the
mining industry. We are not going to sit on the position that the Liberal Party
accepted when it was in government, and we have gone further on these three
workplace codes of practice. I urge employers to look at those.
They are not the only things that we
are doing. Of course, in 2019 we published the code of practice on mentally
healthy workplaces for fly in, fly out workers in the resources and
construction sector. The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety's
mentally healthy workplaces online hub was also launched in 2019, with many
resources to help employers to meet their obligations in the mining industry.
The mentally healthy workplaces program was established under the mines safety
directorate of the department in 2021, and includes proactive inspections relating to mentally healthy
workplaces. The mentally healthy workplaces grants program was an election
commitment made by the Premier in March last
year. Under the grants program, $250 000 a year will go to Mates in Construction over the next four years, and an
additional $250 000 a year will go to Steering Healthy Minds. A further
$500 000 a year will go to other organisations through a competitive process.
Applications opened on 17 January this year and closed on 6 February. In my
capacity as Minister for Mines and Petroleum, I will determine the allocation
of those grants on the advice of DMIRS and the Mental Health Commission. The
work health and safety implementation peak body grants program will also
support the new work health and safety legislation that was passed in the last
term of government and will be fully implemented in the next couple of weeks.
An amount of $600 000 a year has been going
to peak bodies to support them as they work with their membership on the
introduction of the new legislation. Those resources have gone to the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia, the Master Builders
Association of Western Australia, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western
Australia, the Housing Industry Association, the Association of Mining and
Exploration Companies and UnionsWA.
Members can see that the government
has a comprehensive suite of work underway to support mentally healthy
workplaces and remove psychological hazards, because we now know that
psychological hazards are just as big a threat to workers as physical harm.
This is not to reduce the emphasis on eliminating physical harm, but rather to
take that next step and concentrate on removing psychological harm in
workplaces. I urge all employers to fully understand their obligations, which
have existed since 1986, but apparently have not been properly implemented by
employers in their workplaces. I urge people to look at the decision of the
tribunal in the matter of Horne and McIntosh v Press Clough Joint Venture,
which clearly set out, in 1994, the obligations on employers. The idea that this
is somehow a new issue is wrong. This is an established issue for employers.
There is no doubt about their legal obligations, and I am aghast that nearly 30
years after the landmark decision, employers went to the inquiry of this chamber and said that they did not
understand their obligations. What an absolute disgrace! It is nearly 40 years since the obligations were created and
nearly 30 years since any doubt was removed by the tribunals about
employer obligations. That employers said in public that they did not know what
they were doing is disgraceful, and there will be consequences for that
disgraceful behaviour by those employers.