Page 3020 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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In making these remarks, I also highlight the encouraging progress in another key priority in this portfolio, to improve women’s participation in sport. In August 2016 I announced that all peak bodies funded by the ACT government through triennial agreements were required to achieve 40 per cent representation of women on their boards by 2020 or risk being ineligible for funding. The government has been regularly reminding this sector of this position and the sector has been responding. Of the 28 triennial organisations, half are currently achieving 40 per cent or more, with a further six at 30 per cent or more. This is significant progress.
Ultimately these quotas are about providing more opportunities for women to be leaders in sport. It is about our sporting boards improving their governance through greater diversity and ensuring that our aspiration to have more women involved in sport is guided by more women in leadership roles.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Minister for Disability, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety, Minister for Health and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.16): I rise to speak on this part of the budget in my role as Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety.
As those in this place know, there is currently considerable work underway to implement recommendations arising from the independent review of the ACT’s work health and safety compliance and enforcement framework which was undertaken in 2018. Indeed, I introduced the bill to make the legislative change required to provide an independent WorkSafe ACT this morning. But there is more work to do beyond the legislative amendments.
In the 2018-19 budget review, $1.54 million was committed to establish a project implementation team tasked with implementing the recommendations beyond the legislative amendments, recommendations which are operational in nature and will support the new governance model. Their work will ensure that a renewed WorkSafe ACT is set up with policies and procedures that will serve all stakeholders into the future, that are clear and direct in respect of enforcement and compliance, and that ensure that WorkSafe inspectors and industry alike will understand their obligations.
WorkSafe ACT has had an ongoing focus on ensuring that everyone understands their obligations in respect of workplace safety, and it shows. An increased emphasis on safety awareness, proactive site inspections and enforcement action has seen WorkSafe ACT more than double enforcement and regulatory activity in 2018-19 from the previous year. In 2018-19 WorkSafe inspectors undertook close to 4,000 inspections and visits to work sites across our city, with a particular focus on young workers and high-risk industries. The work now underway will continue to build on those impressive outcomes and to ensure that the new organisational structure reflects the needs of the ACT community and is an organisational structure focused on providing secure permanent jobs for the staff of WorkSafe ACT.
Our commitment to ACT public servants stands firm, regardless of where someone may work. Where we can do so, jobs in the ACT public sector will be permanent.
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