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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 266 ..

participation in workplace safety arrangements. New provisions for right of entry in the bill will ensure that representatives of organisations with members in a workplace can enter work premises where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a contravention of the OH&S Act has happened, is happening or is likely to happen.

These provisions are similar to provisions in the New South Wales Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 and complement right of entry provisions in the Commonwealth Workplace Relations Act 1996, which allow representatives of employee organisations to enter workplaces to investigate suspected breaches of industrial awards and agreements.

The new provisions will allow authorised representatives of an employee association registered under the Workplace Relations Act to enter premises and investigate suspected contraventions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The authorised representative will be required to tell the person in charge of work or the premises about the outcome of the investigation. These new provisions will enable employers to work together with their employees to solve problems as they develop, and are essential to the spirit of cooperation in the workplace.

The bill provides for measures to ensure that people comply with their obligations. A wide range of enforcement tools is proposed, from voluntary compliance agreements and improvement and prohibition notices to enforceable undertakings and court-issued injunctions.

Voluntary compliance agreements will enable people in the workplace to enter into cooperative agreements with inspectors in relation to the rectification of potentially dangerous situations. More powerful measures such as prohibition notices can be used in situations where it is necessary to stop certain activities in the face of immediate danger and risk of serious harm. Compliance agreements will allow employers and regulators to work together in a formalised arrangement to rectify problems in a workplace. The agreements encourage employers to take responsibility for making sure improvements are made, and are designed to help employers better understand what is required of them.

The ACT will be the first jurisdiction to provide for compliance agreements. In this, as in other legislative reform initiatives, such as the recently enacted industrial manslaughter amendments to the Crimes Act, the ACT is leading the nation in its development of a robust and comprehensive regulatory regime for work safety.

Enforcement is required where other incentives fail to achieve compliance. The enforcement provisions in the current Occupational Health and Safety Act were crafted more than a decade ago. In particular, the provisions establishing the powers of inspectors are inadequate. The bill replaces these with a new suite of general provisions, including those that cover the general powers of inspectors. These powers are necessary to ensure that inspectors are able to effectively investigate compliance with the legislation and take appropriate action where circumstances require it. The powers provided for in the bill are similar to the powers of inspectors under other contemporary regulatory schemes.

The bill also repeals the infringement notice scheme established in the act, along with the regulations. An infringement notice scheme will be effected through the Magistrates

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