Parliamentary Committees

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION: ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. G.A. Kandelaars:

That the report of the committee, 2011-2012, be noted.

(Continued from 20 March 2013.)

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (16:37): I rise to support the motion moved by the Hon. Mr Kandelaars to note one annual report covering two financial years of the work of the Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Committee. There are a number of different motions on this, one of which I intend to address at a later stage, that is, the report on the rehabilitation aspects of workers compensation; that is the subject of a separate motion, and I will reserve my comments in relation to that.

As the Hon. Mr Kandelaars has indicated, some evidence was received from the Age Discrimination Commissioner, the Hon. Susan Ryan, in relation to the issue of ageing; the committee did not take evidence on that particular issue but noted the evidence the Age Discrimination Commissioner gave and made no conclusions. We are, as the Hon. Mr Kandelaars has indicated, proceeding with some work on an inquiry into SafeWork SA, and that is a fair way down the road. We have commenced also work on another inquiry, which will be the subject of another annual report and a separate report at a later stage.

I join briefly with the Hon. Mr Kandelaars in congratulating other members who have worked on the committee and the staff. I want to point out that the Hon. Mr Kandelaars referred to the fact that the total expenditure of the committee, evidently, over the two financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12 was $3,461, which is not an extraordinary sum of money, one would have thought, for the work of the parliamentary committee over a two-year period—probably the cheapest committee this parliament has, other than perhaps the Printing Committee.

I want to clarify that when the honourable member said that he wanted to thank the staff of the committee, and then listed five separate staff members, I think to the uninitiated that might lead people to believe that we currently have five staff members working for the committee. I want to point out that that is not correct; those five staff members are just people who have replaced each other over that two-year period, and there is a single staff member currently with the committee. There are not five staff members that, as I said, some might be led to believe by the Hon. Mr Kandelaars' final statements. Nevertheless, I join with him in thanking each of those staff members who have worked with the committee over the two-year period.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (16:40): I thank the honourable member for his comments. The members of this committee, one should remember, do not receive any remuneration for participating; however, I think the committee does some very valuable work in relation to its inquiries. As the Hon. Rob Lucas mentioned, the return-to-work processes in relation to South Australia are of considerable concern, as is the issue of an ageing workforce, which I think at some stage we will certainly have to deal with as legislators. With that, I will conclude.

Motion carried.