WORK
HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT
213. Mr S.A. MILLMAN 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 government's historic reforms to the
state's work health and safety laws, including how the McGowan Labor
government has worked with industry, employers, unions and advocates to deliver
safe workplaces for Western Australians?
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON
replied:
I thank the member for his
question, and I acknowledge his life's work in supporting people in
health and safety matters.
I am very proud to be the minister who was able to bring the
work health and safety laws into effect last Thursday, 31 March. Western Australia
now has probably the best health and safety laws in Australia. We are the first
state, using these new uniform laws, to bring all workplaces—general
workplaces, mining workplaces and petroleum sites—under
a single Work Health and Safety Act. The act is an important step forward in
modernising our workplace laws after 36 years. This includes the
introduction of industrial manslaughter, with potential penalties of 20 years'
imprisonment and a $5 million fine for individuals, and up to a $10 million
fine for a body corporate. I want to acknowledge the work of Families Left
Behind—that is the group of families who lost relatives in industrial
incidents—and the effective advocacy it has had for these important
laws.
Another part of improving the protection of workers is the
creation of the idea of a person conducting a business or undertaking, which recognises modern workplaces with subcontractors,
contractors, labour hire and gig economy workers so that the lines of
responsibility are much clearer. We have also brought in clearer obligations on
officers of businesses—that is, the bosses at the top. They will need
to exercise their own due diligence in implementing health and safety in their
workplaces, and not just rely on subordinates to have an excuse for walking
away from their important responsibilities. Another enhancement in the
legislation is to increase the role of work health and safety reps in individual workplaces. That includes allowing them to
direct that work cease if they have a reasonable concern that continuing
work will expose others to serious health or safety risks.
Another provision in the act, again leading the country, is
to ban insurance for workplace penalties. It is very important to think about
this: the idea that an insurance company would pay the penalty on behalf of an
individual is ridiculous. The penalty is imposed by the court to penalise the
person responsible for the poor behaviour. The idea that they can hand that
responsibility onto another is ridiculous. However, the law also now allows for
work health and safety undertakings, which is a new tool in the toolkit for the
regulator. Of course, we have also provided additional resources to the
regulator, in both general industry and in the mining industry. Indeed, the
number of inspectors in the general industry is now 50 per cent higher than it
was when we came into government. We have also
appointed an independent commissioner who has successfully brought three
prosecutions for gross negligence—the first time ever that we
have had successful prosecutions in 38 years of the previous laws.
I want to thank the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation
and Safety; the Commission for Occupational Safety and Health; the WorkSafe
Commissioner; and the Mining Industry Advisory Committee for all their hard
work to get to where we are now. I want to congratulate the many stakeholders,
including employers, unions, advocacy organisations and Families Left Behind.
No relative of a deceased worker suffers more than another, but I want to pay tribute to Regan Ballantine and the
exceptional work she did in taking the suffering she had from losing her son
in an unnecessary industrial death to make
sure that this legislation was passed by this Parliament. I thank everybody
involved in this, and I look forward to improved health and safety outcomes
because of this important legislation.