Page 4100 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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The bill outlines that the role of deputy work health and safety commissioner will be a public service position. The person that occupies that position must also have suitable qualifications in order to act as the commissioner in their absence, for a period of up to six months, should a vacancy occur.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the current Work Safety Commissioner, Greg Jones, and his predecessors for the work they have done to ensure that ACT workplaces are safe and compliant with work health and safety legislation. Mr Jones and his team in particular have weathered a particularly personal storm in the form of a union-driven campaign to get this legislation underway. I believe the current commissioner and his team have performed their role well and to the best of their ability, in keeping workplaces around the ACT compliant with legislation. This bill should not be seen as any kind of distraction from the work they have been conducting over a number of years.
While members opposite seem to think that it is only their remit and that of trade unions to care about safer workplaces, it must be said—and I will reiterate—that everyone, from employers to employees, past, current and future regulators, and all sides of politics, wants to see safer workplaces where people are getting home safely after an honest day’s work. I have said many times in this place, and from a place of experience, that we all have this common goal. With that intention, the opposition will support this legislation, with the foreshadowed amendments that will be dealt with in the detail stage.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (11.16): Madam Assistant Speaker Lee, welcome back to the chamber. The ACT Greens will be supporting the Work Health and Safety Amendment Bill. October is National Safe Work Month, asking workers and employers across Australia to commit to building safe and healthy workplaces for all Australians. This year’s theme is “Be a safety champion” and it demonstrates that anyone, from any occupation or industry, can be a champion for work health and safety.
In Canberra WorkSafe ACT is our regulator, our most obvious champion for work health and safety. This bill gives greater independence to WorkSafe ACT, aiming to enable the agency to more effectively be that champion. It gives them a standalone voice, separate from government, and a platform to transparently and systematically highlight the importance of workplace health and safety and issues arising in Canberra workplaces.
These amendments are part of a range of changes being made to improve work health and safety legislation and implementation in the ACT. This bill takes action to address the recommendations of the 2018 independent review of the ACT’s work safety compliance infrastructure, policies and procedures and, in particular, recommendation 21, relating to the governance arrangements of WorkSafe ACT. The bill also makes changes to ensure consistency of work health and safety terminology across the Work Health and Safety Act.
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