Page 3937 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 25 November 2014
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business. To achieve harmonisation the bill also makes consequential amendments to a range of legislation, including the Building Act 2004, the Building (General) Regulation 2008, Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004, Construction Occupations (Licensing) Regulation 2004 and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. This is mainly drawn from the explanatory memorandum, which is a good summary of what the bill does in this case. It would appear only one jurisdiction—Victoria—is going it alone, and I understand WA is yet to regulate in this way.
As we all appreciate, the changes in the bill are timely, as harmonisation will allow for interstate workers to take part in the Mr Fluffy program. I note from the Chief Minister’s speech that the government are saying they have gone further than required in a number of areas. She said on 30 October:
This legislative reform package adopts the national harmonised asbestos safety model regulations, with a small number of significant adaptations …
Some examples of those adaptations are that the bill removes the ability for an unlicensed but competent person to undertake functions reserved for licensed asbestos assessors in the territory. For those that might have loose-fill asbestos in their homes, to know it is being done under a licensed regime will give some comfort, and, given the dangerous nature we all now understand that asbestos brings to the community, it is important that we have a regime in place to make that happen. Of course, the other thing the territory has done is to mandate an asbestos awareness training course that all workers who are going to be involved in the removal of or working with asbestos have to undertake.
In our consultation with various industry groups they have been very pleased particularly with the concentration of the power in WorkSafe, with the commissioner, in an endeavour to make it a one-stop-shop so that when the work for demolishing, removing and remediating the sites of the Mr Fluffy homes gets underway we can at least have a single port of call. That has to be a good thing for all involved. The opposition will be supporting the bill.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.33): This bill proposes to adopt into ACT law the nationally agreed model Work Health and Safety Regulations on asbestos. The process was actually started several years ago in the ACT when the territory adopted the broader harmonised Work Health and Safety Act and regulation. However, at that time the ACT decided it would not adopt the model regulations that covered asbestos. Members may remember there was concern at the time that the national standard could weaken the ACT’s asbestos management regime, so we explicitly did not adopt the model asbestos regulations at that time. The proposal to adopt them now raises the obvious question: do these model regulations improve our asbestos management scheme or is there a risk that they will weaken it?
Officials from the Chief Minister’s directorate provided my office with a helpful briefing on this and other issues. The model regulation is also available online for review. I am assured and confident that the asbestos management regime we are adopting via this bill and the complementary regulation will be as strong as the one we currently have and, in fact, will have several advantages.
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