Page 1560 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
as adopted automatically in the ACT. These changes will have a positive impact and reduce the administrative burden on businesses that transport dangerous goods in the territory, often travelling through the surrounding New South Wales region before entering the ACT.
In relation to the Work Health And Safety Act 2011 the amendments in this bill will explicitly provide for WHS right of entry permit holders to take photos and otherwise document breaches of work safety legislation that they see while inquiring into work health safety breaches at a workplace. They also make technical amendments to clearly give the work health and safety regulator powers to issue a compliance notice for the removal of illegally installed asbestos.
Workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility and it requires the government to ensure that appropriate mechanisms are in place to keep every worker safe—something that the Canberra community rightly expects. Recent workplace injuries and fatalities have highlighted that there is more that can be done to protect the health and safety of our workers at work. We acknowledge our ongoing responsibility in achieving this by ensuring that our work health and safety laws reflect this expectation. In introducing this legislation, the government are continuing to deliver on our longstanding commitment to protect working people.
The changes within this bill will support the role of the work health and safety regulator by better promoting compliance with work health and safety obligations and duties. The role and expertise in advocating for worker health and safety are already recognised and established in our work health and safety laws. Under part 7 of the Work Health and Safety Act, work health and safety right of entry permit holders, who must be a member of a union, are able to inquire into suspected work health and safety breaches at workplaces.
This is a critical role in assisting with the prevention and rectification of work health and safety breaches by persons conducting a business or undertaking, known as PCBUs. The amendment will ensure that permit holders can, in addition to their existing powers, on entry, document work health and safety breaches more effectively through photographic and audiovisual means.
The changes being introduced were in fact specifically included in the ACT’s work health and safety laws before 2011, when the model work health and safety laws were adopted. The 2011 model laws are silent on the matter of taking photographs or videos of safety conditions, and this amendment will clarify the powers available under that legislation, with the aim of keeping local workplaces safe. This is a specific response to recommendations by the ACT Work Safety Council for facilitating better safety across the ACT. Allowing work health and safety entry permit holders to document any suspected work health and safety breach observed at the workplace under a right of entry will ensure that all breaches can be documented.
The amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act will also ensure that we maintain alignment with the model work health and safety laws and the expectations of stakeholders on dealing with illegally installed asbestos in our workplaces. The nationally agreed model work health and safety laws were recently amended to clearly
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video