Page 1723 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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opening sentence “I present the following papers” in relation to the WorkSafe ACT report. I rule that this is the appropriate place for those papers to be presented.
DR BOURKE: It follows that “CIT cannot be assured that potential risks to the health and safety of workers have not been overlooked”.
Clearly, this failure of systems at CIT appeared to have structural roots and required an intervention in addition to that of the regulator, an intervention that called upon the leadership at CIT to remedy these failures forthwith and comprehensively.
It was in this context that, as minister, I took the unprecedented step of replicating the WorkSafe improvement notice in a direction issued on 12 April 2012 in accordance with section 6 of the CIT Act, which I have tabled here today.
As part of that remedial campaign, CIT has inaugurated an improvement action group, chaired by the Director of the Continuous Improvement and Workers Compensation Branch of the Chief Minister and Cabinet Directorate, and comprising the senior leadership team at CIT.
I have tabled here today the terms of reference of the improvement action group. This group is responsible for the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan to achieve the outcomes required by the improvement notice and my direction. Mr Assistant Speaker, you will note that this group is charged by my direction with providing me with a weekly report of its progress in meeting the terms of the improvement notice and of my direction.
Providing a safe workplace for its employees and a safe facility for its students are the key objectives driving CIT’s efforts to respond to the issues identified by WorkSafe ACT. An encouraging, supportive and collaborative workplace culture—a culture that is founded on the principles of respect, equity and diversity—is the goal of the efforts now commenced by the work of the improvement action group. A factor in this work is the implementation of the RED framework adopted across the ACT public service in 2011.
I must emphasise that the work now begun is not a matter of “top down” dictation by CIT senior leadership but, rather, one of the senior management team leading by example, together with a “bottom up” change in the way workers deal with one another on a day-to-day basis. The improvement action group is a good start but it is only a beginning to a long and deep process of cultural and attitudinal change. It will take time and it will embrace everyone. Such profound change brings with it real and difficult challenges for both the organisation and its people. These challenges will be met and resolved.
Core to the future success of CIT will be its capacity to respond to change. CIT has already embarked on a professional development program on building resilience. This is just one of a number of strategies that will be implemented over the next six months that will spearhead a transformational change within the organisation.
I have asked the CIT improvement action group to develop a detailed plan to achieve the outcomes of the improvement notice. This plan will focus on improving the
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