Industrial Manslaughter

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:51): My question to the Minister for Industrial Relations is: can you please give us an update on Labor's commitment to introduce industrial manslaughter laws for this state? We are waiting, still, for them to be introduced to this parliament.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for her question and her interest in this area. It is a very well-known and well-recognised interest. The honourable member, I know, has brought legislation before this parliament a number of times over a number of parliaments to implement such a measure.

I was very pleased that at the last state election one of the commitments of the then Labor opposition was to introduce laws to create industrial manslaughter as a stand-alone offence in South Australia. Not long after the election, the government went to work on looking at comparisons as to what other jurisdictions do in terms of industrial manslaughter, particularly jurisdictions like Western Australia and Queensland and, more recently, the Northern Territory, which have schemes that are in operation and have been utilised, particularly Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Having looked at what different jurisdictions are doing, the government has undertaken a significant amount of consultation. I have personally attended a number of stakeholder forums that have brought together people who represent workers, a range of unions that have contributed ideas on what they would like to see from industrial manslaughter legislation, and also a number of employer groups that represent a diverse range of companies in South Australia.

Having conducted those forums, we are now taking the submissions, taking the thoughts that those various groups have come up with, and are in the process of drafting legislation taking into account the views of many of the stakeholders, which I expect within the coming months will be released. Once it has been released for that further consultation on the draft legislation, I certainly would expect to have it in parliament some time at least in the first half of next year.