Parliamentary Committees

Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation: Annual Report 2017-18

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (11:20): I move:

That the 2017-18 annual report of the committee be noted.

I am pleased to present the 2017-18 annual report of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation. The committee's activities during this reporting period were somewhat interrupted by the six months between the prorogation of the Second Session of the Fifty-Third Parliament, which happened in December 2017 for the state election and the resumption in May 2018, when the 54^th parliament commenced.

Notwithstanding this, the committee met a total of nine times and completed a total of three reports during the reporting period. Details regarding these three reports are as follows. Firstly, the committee resolved to inquire into the work, health and safety concerns related to home care and support for South Australians with a disability and elderly South Australians. A briefing report on these matters was tabled in the House of Assembly in October 2017.

Secondly, the committee produced an annual report of its activities covering the 2016-17 reporting period, which was also tabled in the House of Assembly in October 2017. Thirdly, the committee completed an inquiry into the Return to Work Act and scheme. As part of this inquiry, the committee received a total of 52 submissions from interested parties, including workers, unions, employers and their associations and groups, and also from medical and legal professional organisations. The committee also received additional evidence from a range of witnesses over 11 separate public hearings.

In addition to the aforementioned completed reports, in October 2018 the committee also resolved to undertake a wideranging inquiry into workplace fatigue and bullying in South Australian hospitals and health services. This inquiry is currently underway and is expected to take at least 12 months to complete. We are asking for submissions up until the newly extended time frame of May.

Certainly, if elected members have any people working in the health system, either public or private, throughout South Australia, I encourage them to take an interest in this matter, both from a bullying perspective and from a fatigue perspective. We have heard stories recently of the effects of fatigue on junior doctors working many long hours, the effect that fatigue can have on their workplace performance, equating eight hours' lack of sleep to being equivalent to a .05 blood alcohol reading, but I digress.

I note that at its first meeting of this parliament, the committee also considered a referral from the committee of the 53^rd parliament regarding a potential inquiry into SafeWork SA, following the tragic death of Mr Jorge Castillo-Riffo during the construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. As a committee, we noted that the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption announced in May 2018 that he was undertaking an evaluation of SafeWork SA. At the same time, the Coroner was hearing the inquest into the death of Mr Castillo-Riffo, so the committee deferred progression of this proposed inquiry.

However, the committee is continuing to monitor developments in this matter with respect to the external reviewing agencies to help inform its view on how to address this matter moving forward. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to contribute to the work of the committee during the reporting period, including those who gave up their time to make submissions or to appear before the committee at hearings.

I would also like to thank all the members who worked diligently to ensure a balanced approach to the work of the committee. Specifically, I acknowledge the former member for Ashford, the Hon. Steph Key MP, who was the presiding member of the committee during the Second Session of the Fifty-Third Parliament; the member for Hurtle Vale; the member for Schubert; and the former member for Wright, the Hon. Jennifer Rankine. They were the previous members.

I also acknowledge the current committee members: from this house, the member for Taylor and the member for Davenport. From the other place, I would also like to thank the Hon. John Dawkins, who is continuing on in his role; the Hon. Justin Hanson; the Hon. Tammy Franks; and the Hon. Tung Ngo, who is an existing member of the committee.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the various staff supporting the work of the committee during this reporting period, including Ms Sue Sedivy, Mr Peter Knapp, Ms Peta Spyrou, Ms Anthea Howard and the new incoming parliamentary officer, Mr Simon Macdonald. I commend this report to the house and look forward to continuing our work as a committee to investigate important matters around health and safety.

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (11:26): I rise to speak to the report tendered by the member for Morphett. Rather than canvass all the ground he has covered, I want to briefly make some points regarding the occupational safety, rehabilitation and compensation committee and several of the key items that it has covered, certainly in my time, since being elected in March last year. It has to be said that whilst the committee suffers an incredibly convoluted name, which does cause some difficulty if only by way of remembering precisely—

The SPEAKER: As an acronym perhaps?

Mr MURRAY: Even the acronym does not work, and I can assure you that we have tried. Notwithstanding the name, I am incredibly honoured to be able to contribute what I can by way of oversight to ensure that workers in particular are safe in their workplaces. That said, I first of all make the point with regard to a referral to the committee from the 53^rd parliament, which the member for Morphett has alluded to. It was a suggestion for a potential inquiry into the death of Mr Jorge Castillo-Riffo, who tragically lost his life on the new RAH site. I do not intend to drill down to the specifics thereof.

The potential inquiry was deferred by virtue of the fact that SafeWork SA was involved, and particularly in the view of the Coroner investigating Mr Castillo-Riffo's death should have been more involved, and that is the subject of some contention. It is a matter now on public record that SafeWork SA has gone on to become the subject of an ICAC report into a variety of its methodologies and not just the way in which it conducted itself in this particular case.

I want to put on the record that I feel humbled and honoured, as I said, to be able to contribute what I can to ensure that workers have a work environment that is as safe as possible so that they do return to their loved ones. I make the point that SafeWork SA has been the subject of innumerable inquiries over the years, and matters seem, to me at least, to continue to be reheated.

I am very firmly of the view that more parliamentary oversight of the workings of SafeWork SA and some form of full-time audit of the way in which they carry out their obligations and the methodologies they employ are the only ways in which people can be assured that their best interests are adequately exercised by SafeWork SA.

Moving to the inquiry being conducted into workplace fatigue and bullying in the South Australian health system, this again is a particularly germane point from the perspective of a large number of people in my electorate. My electorate includes the Flinders hospital, and a large number of people resident in the seat of Davenport work at Flinders or previously worked at the Repat hospital. During the course of my doorknocking and speaking to many thousands of them, literally, a large number made the point that there were extremely undesirable endemic workplace practices and, in particular, that there was a considerable amount of undesirable activity in regard to people being able to speak out about workplace practices that were less than optimal.

I very much look forward to giving people a voice to ensure that our health system does not encourage or countenance any form of workplace bullying for any reason whatsoever, be it on an individual basis or be it perpetrated by way of ensuring that people do not speak out against policy implementation.

I do not intend to reiterate all the thankyous and acknowledgements made by the member for Morphett, other than to make particular reference to the outstanding work provided to the committee by Anthea Howard. She deserves special commendation for the diligent and exemplary way in which she conducted herself whilst in the service of the committee. I conclude by not so much recommending that the committee be renamed but by commending it to the house and what it seeks to achieve, along with this annual report.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (11:32): I thank the member for Davenport and members for contributing to this report, and I thank everyone for their keen interest in listening to this.

Motion carried.