Page 2008 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 May 2013
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As has been noted in the debate, there have been several tragic deaths on ACT worksites over the last 18 months. The ACT Greens were active in campaigning for work safety reforms over this time.
The government commissioned the Getting home safely report, which was released in November last year. That report drew attention to some very serious problems. On average, every day a construction worker will sustain an injury in the ACT. Our serious injury rate is almost a third higher than the national average. The ACT construction sector’s fatality rate was almost three times the rate of fatalities of all other industries. As I have said, and as I am sure we will all agree, this is unacceptable and we need to take action to improve the safety situation in the territory.
The government tabled its response to the Getting home safely report in February this year. It agreed to all of the recommendations. As I said at the time, the government has the Greens’ strong support for reforming the ACT’s construction industry. I will be following the implementation of the report’s recommendations closely.
Really I think the key now is to simply get on with it. Implementing these recommendations should be a priority for the government. At this stage I am quite confident that the government is taking its response to the report very seriously. As we have heard, it is taking significant steps to implement the recommendations, and this will be quite a long and ongoing task.
On this note I am happy to support the motion that Mr Gentleman has presented, with a few amendments which I will move shortly. The amendments essentially focus the motion on the ongoing task of implementing the Getting home safely report’s recommendations and calls on the government to ensure they do this in a timely way.
Workplace safety has always been an important issue to the Greens. We have been very active in the ACT, and in fact right across Australia, in promoting and progressing workplace safety.
At the last ACT election, the ACT Greens released a specific election platform focused on workplace safety. This was our policy called “Making Canberra the work safety capital”. It outlined our vision for there to be no deaths on ACT worksites in Canberra and set out a number of initiatives. I am pleased that some elements of this election platform are now encompassed in the ACT Greens-Labor parliamentary agreement. Some elements are also captured by the recommendations of the Getting home safely report.
Item 9.1 of the parliamentary agreement requires the government to “Review the operation of the Building and Construction Training Authority and consult on a proposed increase of the building and construction training levy to 0.3%”. The purpose here, and it was one of the identified gaps, was to ensure that there was more money available for training when it came to safety issues.
Item 9.2 of the agreement requires the government to “Increase proactive worksite investigations, particularly in construction to ensure safety is adequate and prevent
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