Page 1987 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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different direction from that of the Government - in some cases in terms of membership of the committee. The staff of the committee, who worked on one of the earliest reports of this Assembly, are to be congratulated.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY BILL 1989
Debate resumed from 25 May 1989, on motion by Mr Whalan:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STEFANIAK (8.16): I will make some brief comment on a couple of points raised by Mr Whalan because they do affect the debate on whether the Bill should be adopted in principle. I intend referring to a number of reports that were placed before the committee - some of the more major reports from various interested groups - to show that it was not completely unanimous that there should be occupational health and safety legislation.
Most groups in the private sector and certainly the union movement believe there should be occupational health and safety legislation, but that was not completely unanimous, and there are some grave reservations that various organisations had about this legislation, while most of them supported the principal thrust of the need for legislation of this type.
On balance, Mr Speaker, I and my party believe that occupational health and safety legislation is necessary, and we want to see in place sensible legislation that will ensure the health and safety of workers are protected in the workplace and that business and employees work together to ensure that occurs, because if you do not do so in any business, not only in this Territory but also Australia-wide, that is very bad for business. Any fool can, I think, realise that it is essential that a person's safety in the workplace is protected.
That said, I think we have to be very careful to ensure that the legislation is balanced and protects both the workers' legitimate interests and the legitimate interests of employers. It is the view of my party that there are certain aspects of this legislation which put the emphasis in certain areas in which it should not be put and which do not address the question of real safety in the workplace and legitimate protection of employers' interests, and I think they have to be looked at.
There are a number of amendments which will be put before this house at the detail stage on Thursday, many of which have been put up by my party, a number of which were to have been put up by the majority of members of the committee which looked into occupational health and safety.
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