Ministerial Statement

Work Health and Safety Act

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:04): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I wish to inform the house of my intention to introduce a bill into the next parliament, as soon as it returns, to amend the transitional provisions of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. The amendment will be to insert a provision that will allow the minister responsible to extend the time limit for proceedings under the now repealed occupational health, safety and welfare act of 1986.

I have recently become aware of a technical error in the filing of two complaints under the OHSW act. The nature of the defect means that it is not possible to correct this error by simple amendment of the complaints. The only way to continue with these prosecutions is to file fresh complaints, making the same allegations with the defect corrected. However, the statutory time limit under the legislation has since expired on each of these matters which prevents the prosecution from proceeding under the existing complaint.

I am advised that there is no other means of resolving the issue—by an application made to the court, by administrative means or by regulation. The time limits can only be relieved by statutory amendment, and that is why I will be seeking to amend the act in the long term. No other cases but these two will be affected by the amendment.

The two prosecutions relate to serious workplace incidents. One incident resulted in a fatality and the other resulted in serious head injuries to the employee. For these prosecutions not to proceed due to a technicality is unacceptable. It is my view that it is important that these matters have the opportunity to proceed to a judicial determination on the merits of the case.

I have spoken with one member of the family of the person fatally injured and I have attempted to contact another to advise him of my intention to try to amend the act at the earliest possible time. Attempts are still being made to contact the affected injured person. Workers have the right to be safe and employers who do not provide safe workplaces should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted for failing to meet their obligations. One workplace death or injury is too many and we should be working together to do all we can do to prevent these occurring.

Along with this amendment to the act, next year I will be considering possible changes to the operations of SafeWork SA. Following the successful passage of the Return to Work Bill earlier this year, I believe the next phase in the process is to further strengthen our work injury prevention measures.