Page 2709 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (4.23): The budget’s work safety and industrial relations measures reflect this government’s priorities in this space. We are committed to, first, preventing injuries and illnesses at work from happening through supporting WorkSafe to deliver innovative, targeted education and effective compliance and enforcement, as well as the ongoing tripartite work of the Work Safety Council, which has a particular focus on high-risk industries such as construction, as well as on vulnerable workers. Of course, significant work and investment across directorates have contributed to the reduction in workplace injuries that Mr Wall talked about—stealing some of my own speaking notes in that regard. It has also contributed to a reduction in Comcare premiums, which is of broader benefit.
We are also committed to getting injured workers back to work by investing in return to work measures, which I will speak further about shortly, investigating options to become a self-insurer under Comcare and seeking to improve our own performance by taking responsibility for that.
Of course, we are committed to improving outcomes for Canberra workers more broadly, which includes advocating in the sphere of federal influence, whether that means lobbying for increased resources for the Fair Work Ombudsman in the ACT, supporting the inclusion of family and domestic violence leave in the national employment standards or opposing cuts to penalty rates—and there is no evidence that this will create additional jobs but we know for sure and certain that it will cut the pay of some of our lowest paid and most vulnerable workers, including many young workers.
We will continue to work closely with unions, industry and workers to deliver on these priorities. As we all know, when it comes to work safety, prevention is far better than any cure. I would like to acknowledge the critical, ongoing role of our work health and safety regulator, WorkSafe ACT, in improving safety outcomes in the territory across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
In 2016-17 WorkSafe ACT carried out 4,391 workplace inspections. Of these, 1,682 related to proactive campaigns and events, including the National Multicultural Festival, the Canberra Show and the night noodle markets. In the last financial year WorkSafe issued 130 improvement notices under work safety or dangerous substance laws and 54 prohibition notices.
In response to community feedback, Access Canberra has recently made some changes to enhance the Work Safety Commissioner’s capacity to deliver improved work health and safety outcomes for all Canberrans. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of current arrangements to ensure that workplace health and safety has the prominence it deserves.
While we still have more work to do in reducing serious workplace injuries, as Mr Wall did note, a recent independent actuarial review of 2015-16 workers comp data revealed a reduction of almost 19 per cent in the serious injury frequency rate over a three-year period. In addition, in the ACT public sector, work injury numbers
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