Page 3422 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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I will raise it here because it is also part of work health and safety issues and is obviously relevant to the IR portfolio. It is well known that CIT is currently subject to a WorkSafe improvement notice, as well as various orders from the minister, due to serious failings in its processes for dealing with bullying. There was also a report in 2010 from a consulting firm that identified problems at CIT, and that was the KMR report.
It is important to know whether the government knew about this KMR report back in 2010. Dr Bourke has stated that he did not know about this KMR report until mid-2012. Evidence from CIT in the estimates hearings shows that it appears the former minister, Minister Barr, did know about this report and that action was not taken at the time, or it appears so. I would appreciate it if Minister Barr, who was the relevant minister at the time, would explain what occurred with the KMR report which discussed bullying problems at CIT.
There was not additional funding for new work safety initiatives in this budget, although it is something which is identified as an issue. The Greens would like to see workplace safety become more of a priority, particularly in light of the tragic accidents in the construction sector. The budget papers carried an indicator which was that only 40 per cent of ACT workplaces inspected by WorkSafe complied with occupational health and safety legislation. In estimates the Work Safety Commissioner explained that this figure was distorted because most WorkSafe visits are in response to a complaint. It would seem that this indicator needs to be reworked but also that there needs to be an increase in WorkSafe’s capacity for proactive inspections.
This would include putting more resources into both proactive and responsive inspection capacity, reviewing and reforming government procurement processes, putting more into safety and training programs and having specialist skills in preventing and dealing with workplace bullying, as other jurisdictions have. I note that the government has set up a review of work safety in the construction industry. The Greens support this review and I was encouraged to hear today in question time from the Attorney-General that the review will now take submissions from the public and that government procurement practices are likely to be included in the terms of reference.
I note that, as with some other portfolio areas, with IR it is not always clear why particular targets are chosen for accountability indicators. For example, it is not clear why the directorate chose a target of four for the number of times the directorate will provide advice to government on developments in the national workplace safety agenda. I would encourage the government to provide clearer indicators and more information in this area in next year’s budget.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.40): I have been asked by Mrs Dunne to speak on her behalf as the industrial relations shadow for the Canberra Liberals, and her words follow.
On the industrial relations front within the Chief Minister and Cabinet Directorate, I note that, in particular, scrutiny committee report No 55 makes lengthy notes about the Work Health and Safety Amendment Regulation 2012 No 2 which does two
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