Page 1286 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 5 May 2015
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high injury rates and we must do what we can to reduce those numbers in those workplaces. Given this, my future reports to the Assembly will focus on work safety issues and performance for all territory industries. I intend to provide the Assembly with annual updates on these very important issues.
I present the following paper:
Getting Home Safely: Inquiry into Compliance with Work Health and Safety Requirements in the ACT’s Construction Industry—Implementation update—Ministerial statement, 5 May 2015.
I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Community Services, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Women and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Social Inclusion and Equality) (10.47): It is appropriate that the minister for workplace safety brings this statement to the Assembly today. Last week was the national day of mourning; Canberrans got together at the memorial at Lake Burley Griffin to recognise people across Australia who have died from workplace injuries. More than 40 people across Australia have died from workplace injuries this year alone. In the ACT, the memorial recognises Anthony Johnston, Gerard Willey, Wayne Vickery and Ben Catanzariti, four men who should have come home from work.
While the construction industry in the ACT has remained fatality-free since the delivery of the Getting home safely report, the serious injury incident rate remains high, so there is still much work to be done.
It is acknowledged that it will be difficult to change the culture of this industry and reduce the incidence of serious injury without the commitment and effort of all parties. Minister Gentleman has pointed out that it is important that all of the parties work together, and there is a commitment from all of the parties—the government, industry, employee bodies, principal contractors, site supervisors and workers more generally.
As a community, we should all continue to seek opportunities to minimise the construction industry health and safety risks. The ACT government is driving improvements in the industry by introducing best practice purchasing arrangements for construction projects that it commissions, including active certification for the review and measurement of a construction contractor’s health and safety performance and whole-of-government construction project management guidelines.
Active certification is the process through which the performance of construction contractors who have been commissioned to undertake work on behalf of the territory will be audited and their health and safety performance measured. Where a contractor’s health and safety performance is found to be lacking, this will affect the ability of the contractor to work for the territory. This initiative has been widely accepted by the industry and has identified several improvements for those companies
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