Page 2966 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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Specifically, recommendation 21 of the review states that the regulator should be established as an independent entity under the Work Health and Safety Act, using a single accountability governance model, with a statutory office holder who holds the regulatory power and is responsible for all regulatory decisions. This bill will establish just that, a single accountability governance model that will support an effective regulator in the ACT.
This bill focuses on a number of key design principles in implementing the governance model—namely, independence, transparency, accountability and scrutiny. The bill achieves this by establishing WorkSafe ACT with the formal title of Office of the Work Health and Safety Commissioner. This office establishes the separate and independent entity of the regulator for the Work Health and Safety Act. Further, the bill would vest the regulator’s functions in a single statutory position of the Work Health and Safety Commissioner, or WHS commissioner.
The role of the WHS commissioner is a new role. It is a position that will play a critical role in managing the office and exercising the functions of the regulator. The regulator, under the work health and safety legislation, not only enforces compliance with the obligations and duties applied to the private sector but also imposes obligations on the ACT government as an employer. For this reason it is important that the regulator be independent in exercising its regulatory functions.
In support of the independence of the office and the WHS commissioner, the WHS commissioner and staff of the office will be independent officers in carrying out the regulatory functions under the work health and safety legislation. The WHS commissioner will be appointed by the executive as a non-public servant. The WHS commissioner will need to regularly disclose any conflicts of interest they may have. The WHS commissioner will be able to appoint staff for the office.
While the bill removes the current statutory role of the Work Safety Commissioner, this is responsive to issues raised in the review that the two currently separate roles of Work Safety Commissioner and regulator have contributed to a lack of clarity and some confusion. To ensure that the important education and awareness-raising functions in relation to work health and safety issues are maintained under the new governance framework, these functions have been vested in the office for which the WHS commissioner is responsible.
In establishing an independent entity as the regulator for work health and safety, it is also critical to ensure that there are appropriate mechanisms in place for the effective transparency, accountability and scrutiny of the activities of the regulator.
These mechanisms have been designed in the bill to support the transparency and accountability of the office through increased reporting requirements as a result of being a separate entity, including the preparation of an annual report; clarity as to advisory functions of the new Work Health and Safety Council that is responsible for advising the government on matters relating to the work health and safety legislation, including the activities of the regulator and stakeholder confidence in the regulator; a requirement for the government’s expectations as to the priority activities and
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