Page 3764 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 24 September 2019
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Aligning ACT and commonwealth legislation is important but harmonisation should not be at the expense of best practice and not at the expense of a fair and just court system. We note that the directorate are aware of the implications for human rights and procedural fairness. This will need to be monitored as the changes come into effect to ensure no unintended consequences.
Even where we have protections in place and a robust work health and safety system, there are still examples of things that can be done better. There are still too many stories of serious workplace accidents in the ACT, highlighting that more needs to be done to protect our workers and to compensate them appropriately when injuries occur.
This bill is part of a suite of changes to work health and safety in the ACT and we welcome the government’s commitment to improving our systems and protections in this area. The Greens will be supporting the bill today
MS ORR (Yerrabi—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Disability, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety and Minister for Government Services and Procurement) (11.26): I am pleased to speak in support of the Courts (Fair Work and Workplace Safety) Legislation Amendment Bill 2019. As the territory’s Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety I am acutely aware that territory workers need a justice system that provides a quick, efficient and cheap forum that supports them in enforcing their rights. Further, it must provide a strong framework for holding employers responsible when they breach work health and safety laws.
Canberra workers deserve to be treated fairly and to be safe at work. The ACT government is committed to supporting workers in the territory, especially our most vulnerable.
Today I rise specifically to speak to provisions contained in the bill that will amend the Magistrates Court Act, the Crimes Act, the Work Health and Safety Act and the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act to ensure that businesses are held criminally responsible when they break the law. These amendments are being made to address a range of legal issues identified by the Director of Public Prosecutions arising from a recent court case. This includes the application of the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act to certain prosecutions.
The case in question involved a death on a construction site and had nine defendants. One defendant was charged with manslaughter, while the remaining defendants, two of which were corporations, were charged with reckless conduct under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. The court found that under current provisions of criminal and workplace safety law the corporate defendants could not be committed to trial to the Supreme Court alongside the individual defendants as under the WHS Act the penalties applying to body corporates are financial and therefore not indictable.
In addition to concerns about duplication of proceedings, this decision has implications for the confiscation of criminal asset scheme as the COCA provisions are
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