NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LAWS

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:52): I seek leave to make an explanation prior to directing a question to the Minister for Industrial Relations on the subject of a regulatory impact statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Yesterday the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Technology in Victoria, the Hon. Gordon Rich-Phillips, issued a press statement on the regulatory impact statement for the National Occupational Health and Safety harmonisation laws. In a statement the minister said, 'the Commonwealth had committed to including impacts in dollar terms for each state and territory.' He commented that the regulatory impact statement, which had just been released by the federal minister for workplace relations, had failed to include those critical details on the impact of the harmonisation laws for Victoria. He went on to say:

The RIS released by the Commonwealth falls far short of including the vital detail that should have been in the final impact statement. This leaves Victorian businesses in the dark on the potential costs of this proposed scheme. It is also concerning that the final RIS released by the Commonwealth varies considerably from the draft provided to state jurisdictions just one month ago and the projected benefits of the scheme have been significantly reduced.

The minister then said that Victoria would now complete further analysis of the final RIS provided by the commonwealth and consider whether a separate Victorian RIS is required. My question is to the minister are:

1. Is it correct, as the Victorian minister has asserted, that the commonwealth government did give a commitment to the South Australian government that the regulatory impact statement would include impacts in dollar terms for each state and territory?

2. Does the government accept that any uniform law will have differential impacts on different states depending on the state of the pre-existing law in each of those states?

3. What regulatory impact statement or cost benefit analysis has the South Australian Labor government undertaken? If it has not undertaken any of its own volition, will it now conduct any analysis of the regulatory impacts of the harmonisation package on South Australian business and industry? If not, why not?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:55): I thank the member for his question. The Regulation Impact Statement was released only recently. I was told today that apparently what the federal government is saying regarding this statement is that there are savings of around $250 million a year, from memory, for the next 10 years. Victoria has made it quite clear that it has certain issues with this impact statement and that it will consider looking at its own.

As I said, this only came to my attention today and I have not had a chance to consider or discuss this issue with SafeWork officials or the chief executive officer. However, I will be looking at and examining the document and, once we have a position, I will come back and provide information to the chamber.