Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3911 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

As I said earlier, the legislation which I introduced as private members business on 30 June this year originated from direct interference by a Minister of the ACT Government in the role of WorkCover inspectors at a job site in the ACT. It was an appalling event in governance in the ACT when statutory officers were interfered with by political appointees from the offices of a Minister. I have no doubt that at that time there was no commitment to occupational health and safety in the ACT.

A subsequent committee inquiry recommended the establishment of a statutory body to deal with occupational health and safety in the ACT. That proposal was rejected out of hand by the Government as being too expensive. The Government has come up with a model which is most suited to the circumstances in New South Wales, where there is a multimillion dollar operation, and is totally unsuited to the one which applies in the ACT, which can be achieved more economically by the proposal I have put forward.

Following the Government's rejection of the committee's recommendation for the establishment of such a body, I made it my business to issue drafting instructions to ensure that this outcome was achieved. These drafting instructions were issued in October 1998. I will just deal with the first paragraph because it explains exactly where I was coming from in relation to the matter. Under the heading "Establish the office of Commissioner for Occupational Health and Safety", I wrote:

Mr Speaker, you will find elements of both of those pieces of legislation in the Occupational Health and Safety (Amendment) Bill (No.2) which we are debating today.

I heard Mr Smyth on the radio criticising the legislation which I had put forward, saying that it did not create any independence for the Occupational Health and Safety Commissioner. What a joke! It adopts models which are working in the ACT. Is Mr Smyth suggesting that the Ombudsman is not independent? Is he suggesting that the Discrimination Commissioner is not independent? Surely not. Those models are not much different either from those which apply to the DPP, the Fire Commissioner and the Community and Health Services Complaints Commissioner. All those people hold positions in statutory bodies. Is Mr Smyth suggesting that they are not independent? I am sure that he is not. I am sure that that was just language for the masses and had nothing to do with the facts. It is another example of him saying the first thing that comes into his head, as long as it makes him look as though he is across the issues and denigrates what the other side is doing.

One other factor which needs to be taken into account in relation to the legislation I have introduced is the issue of accountability. Mr Speaker, I have made it clear that the legislation I have introduced, if passed in this Assembly, would make the Occupational Health and Safety Commissioner completely and utterly accountable to this place. Yes,

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .