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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2411 ..

Having said that, I do thank members for their contributions. It was interesting to sit through, particularly for members who have spent a long time, with both staff of the Office of Industrial Relations and staff in my office, working through the detail and working through some sensible amendments to this legislation to enable better legislation to be passed tonight. I will get to the comments made in the in-principle stage at the end of my speech. The legislation we are considering today introduces an enhanced compliance and enforcement framework for workplace safety in the ACT. The Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2004 introduces new provisions to support cooperation and positive compliance in the workplace and strengthen enforcement powers.

When the Stanhope government was elected in 2001, it commenced the major task of building an integrated and robust body of work and safety legislation. The reform of occupational health and safety laws the Assembly is considering tonight represents another significant step towards the delivery of this commitment. It complements the ACT’s industrial manslaughter and dangerous substances laws and ensures that the ACT continues to lead the nation in developing modern and progressive safety legislation.

The proposed amendments will introduce a mix of innovative compliance mechanisms, allowing work safety regulators to use voluntary compliance agreements, improvement notices, prohibition notices, enforceable undertakings and court ordered injunctions to ensure compliance with the OH&S Act.

The new provisions generally parallel those contained in the recently enacted Dangerous Substances Act. It is desirable to maintain consistency between the two regimes as far as possible. Consistency will assist work safety inspectors in the proper exercise of their functions and assist employers in understanding their obligations and the consequences of failing to meet these. I ask members to bear this in mind as we proceed to debate the bill.

The bill is a result of the first phase of a comprehensive review of the OH&S Act. The government has been assisted in this review by the Occupational Health and Safety Council. The council is a tripartite body established under the act to provide advice to the government on health and safety in territory workplaces. In 2003 the council provided the government with a report on the compliance and enforcement framework established by the act. The recommendations made by the council form the substance of this bill. Consultation on the bill has continued since it was introduced. Officers from the Office of Industrial Relations and staff from my office have made presentations to and met with business and employer bodies, union representatives and MLAs.

The right of entry provisions proposed for employee organisations have been of particular interest, with some strongly supporting them and others, particularly in the business sector, opposing them. Unfortunately, considerable misinformation has been promulgated about the proposed laws, including farcical statements from the federal minister for small business, Mr Joe Hockey, suggesting that bikie gangs could be registered to enter workplaces and that unions would be able to enter private residences.

I ask members to see these scare tactics for what they are when considering the rationale for the right of entry laws. That said, the government has listened carefully to the views

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