Page 3062 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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work health and safety issues such as safe lifting, slips and falls, and bullying and harassment. In the ACT public sector, work injury numbers are also trending downwards. In 2016-17 the number of work injuries was four per cent lower than in 2015-16 and 13 per cent lower than in 2014-15.
After much consideration and consultation the government recently announced that it will not be seeking to exit the Comcare workers compensation scheme. Rather than make changes to the types of compensation services that an injured worker may receive, we will focus on improving public sector injury prevention and management practices. The territory is therefore now investigating whether it should become a self-insurer within the Comcare scheme, which would allow us to take more responsibility for the care and rehabilitation of injured public sector workers and to develop a best practice injury management model.
As a demonstration of our commitment, the 2017-18 budget has set aside $1.4 million over four years to fund new injury prevention initiatives, including training and early intervention health services. In addition, we know that occupational violence is a risk in a range of industries, and this issue has recently become more prominent in our schools. Last month, the Deputy Chief Minister announced a new occupational violence policy and management plan with the Australian Education Union ACT branch to ensure public school staff are safe and confident in doing what they are most passionate about: teaching and facilitating learning.
I cannot emphasise strongly enough the critical role of our work health and safety regulator in improving safety outcomes in the territory across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. There has been some recent reporting of Safe Work Australia figures for 2014-15. I am pleased to report that, since that time, there has been a significant increase in workplace visits, particularly in relation to proactive inspections. In 2016-17 WorkSafe ACT carried out 4,923 workplace inspections. Of these, 1,933 related to proactive campaigns and events such as the National Multicultural Festival, the Canberra Show and the night noodle markets.
In the last financial year WorkSafe issued 141 improvement notices under work safety and dangerous substance laws and 58 prohibition notices. In response to community feedback, Access Canberra has recently made some changes to enhance the Work Safety Commissioner’s capacity to deliver improved work health and safety outcomes for all Canberrans. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of current arrangements to ensure that workplace health and safety has the prominence it deserves.
Many in this place will be aware that the 2012 Getting Home Safely report on safety in the construction industry identified poor safety culture as a key driver behind what was at the time a deteriorating work injury rate. The inquiry panel’s recommendations for change were based on the principle that improvements to the sector’s health and safety capability could only be achieved in the context of a strong safety culture and that everyone has a role to play—employers, employees, unions and government.
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