SafeWork SA

Mr GEE (Napier) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. How is the government helping business to understand and meet their occupational work, health and safety responsibilities?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:55): I thank the member for his question. I know he has a longstanding interest in the welfare of people in the workplace, and it is a very important topic that he raises. Some years ago the government embarked upon a process of consultation to see whether we could improve a system that was then referred to as WorkCover. We undertook a series of conversations with people in the year 2013, I think initially.

Both the Premier and I were involved in these conversations at length. We spoke to people from the trade union movement, various employer groups, the self-insured group, and aside from having a multitude of concerns about the then WorkCover system—I believe all of which have ultimately been addressed in the return-to-work legislation that has now been operating since 1 July last year—they also raised with us the question of the workplace safety organisation that operates in South Australia.

As you would appreciate, in the event of a person having an injury, ReturnToWorkSA is there to provide, in effect, insurance cover for the outgoings associated with that injury which could include loss of wages, medical bills or whatever the case might be, but aside from a risk management function which ReturnToWorkSA does have, ReturnToWorkSA is not a workplace education unit and it is not a workplace policeman. Those functions have traditionally sat with what is called SafeWork SA.

SafeWork SA came in for quite a bit of criticism during the course of the negotiations that I have just been speaking of because both people on the employer and the employee side of the ledger told us that they felt as if they were not comfortable inviting people from SafeWork SA into the workplace because if they did that, the person they invited in ostensibly as somebody who was to be there to help might immediately transform into somebody who was there to issue a summons on them.

So we came to the view that there was a prevailing culture out there which was, 'Don't engage with SafeWork SA because if you do, it might ultimately be to your disadvantage,' and that is from the employer's perspective. I have to say from the worker's perspective, there were concerns about whether or not the advice that was being received was sufficiently particular and pertinent to the industries in which these people were working. So, we set about trying to improve this system, and I have to say I believe what has been achieved has been so far very encouraging.

As from 1 July this year, we now have within SafeWork SA two completely distinct units. We have an educational arm of SafeWork SA and we have a prosecutorial arm of SafeWork SA. They have ceased to be mixed up. The object of this exercise was to make it clear to employers that you can invite someone from SafeWork SA to come into your establishment and give you advice as to how you can make your workplace safer, and thereby hopefully avoid injuries in the first place. You can actually have these people in there without fear that by doing so you are letting the wolf into the chicken coop.

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill: Or the fox, even.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Or even the fox, and so we have a separation of what you might call the black hats and the white hats. They are separated.

The SPEAKER: Time is up, I'm afraid.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I've got more.

The SPEAKER: I had a feeling that the minister's preamble was too long. Deputy leader.