Page 4061 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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MR CORBELL: Yes. WorkSafe ACT is conducting a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding the fire and issues around safe work practice and the occupational health and safety duties of ESI. That will be the subject of a formal investigation by WorkSafe ACT.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, members. I think the joke really has passed. Perhaps we can cut down on the comments. Ms Le Couteur, a supplementary.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, what recourse will be available to workers who may have been exposed to safety risks in ESI during the time that WorkSafe was unaware of ESI’s location?
MR CORBELL: Whether or not WorkSafe ACT was aware of the location is not a relevant consideration when it comes to their occupational health and safety duty. Businesses have an occupational health and safety duty. That is a universal legal obligation on the employer. It does not relate to where they are physically located. It is a requirement under the law that the management of businesses have certain obligations in relation to occupational health and safety.
I think it is too early to speculate on what may or may not occur out of the WorkSafe ACT investigation. I have been fully briefed by the commissioner for work safety, who is also the executive director responsible for WorkSafe ACT. He has advised me of what steps he is taking to undertake a detailed investigation into work practices and safe work practices at the ESI site. I have every confidence that his investigation will be a thorough one and I think, given that, we have to await the outcome of the WorkSafe ACT investigation. I will add that, as part of that investigation, WorkSafe ACT will be interviewing relevant staff from the ESI facility.
MS HUNTER: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, are you aware that other states, like Victoria, have stricter and more thorough laws governing PCB, and are the ACT’s laws sufficient?
MR CORBELL: My understanding of the regulatory arrangements in place in relation to the governance of PCBs, which is a matter in relation to environmental protection legislation, not dangerous goods legislation, which was the subject of Ms Le Couteur’s question, and indeed Ms Bresnan’s initial question—we are shifting between those two areas but they are quite distinct. On dangerous goods, the requirements in relation to the dangerous goods act relate to the need to notify if there are placard quantities of particular substances, as I outlined in my statement to the Assembly this morning. The obligations under the environmental protection legislation relate to getting formal approvals to store and use those materials here in the ACT.
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