Page 816 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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why the statement by Minister Berry really does not make that much difference in terms of the designated work groups, because it is the attitudes that it seeks to change that become critical about this legislation.
In our visits that were mentioned by Mr Stefaniak, we could certainly see the need for change in attitudes in some places, and we could certainly see the effect that a strong, positive approach to occupational health and safety has had, particularly with reference to the section 38 building site and the Southern Cross Club.
We certainly look for consistencies in the penalties. I think that the committee felt, as a group, that it was difficult. It was indeed the same difficulty that we had encountered with previous Bills in the Assembly. We need an overall guideline for penalties. I would exhort the Government to set about, as quickly as possible, establishing some sort of guideline for penalties for each Bill that comes before the house.
Another major concern was training. It would appear that the unions were concerned. They certainly claimed, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, that they had the best system of training people in occupational health and safety and had the most experience in it. On the other hand, some businesses felt that it would be inappropriate, if they were paying for the training, to send people off to what could easily become, as they perceived it, a situation where the unions could use that as a method of indoctrinating people into unionism.
Let me say at this point that I am a long-term union member, and have been for basically all of my working life. So I have no particular problem with the unions. I have been a union representative for various parts of my working place. However, I recognise that small businesses, particularly when they are paying for something, should have a choice. It is that choice that we have presented in our recommendations on this Bill - that the employer can have a choice, in conjunction with his employees, as to where the training takes place, whether it be by a union or at TAFE.
I would imagine that in the not too distant future, as this Bill takes place, training will become part and parcel of the whole apprenticeship training scheme, as indeed it should be, so that people are in the frame of mind to think of safety and to think about a positive approach to hazards and how to deal with them.
Mr Stefaniak drew attention to the language problem that took so much of our time, and in some way it seemed to be a disproportionate amount of our time. However, the concern was clearly that, if we insisted that we have employers train people in a specific foreign language, they may decide not to employ a person because the easier way out
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