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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY (SELF-INCRIMINATION) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:37): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:37): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Work Health and Safety (Self-Incrimination) Amendment Bill 2013 will amend section 172 of the Work Health and Safety Act of 2012. The operation of the act commenced on 1 January this year. This amendment is a minor technical amendment which provides certainty in relation to a provision that currently is arguably open to an unintended interpretation.

During the debate on the Work Health and Safety Bill 2012 in the Legislative Council, an amendment to clause 172 was successfully moved by the Hon. Rob Lucas MLC. Clause 172 originally removed a natural person's privilege against self-incrimination—in other words, the right to silence. The intention of the amendment in the Legislative Council was to reinsert this privilege. This was made clear in the parliamentary and other debates surrounding the bill.

It appears, however, that the amendment to section 172 as actually enacted could be interpreted as providing a privilege against self-incrimination to corporations as well as natural persons, which was not the intention. Corporations, at common law, do not enjoy the protection against self-incrimination. If corporations were to be granted the privilege against self-incrimination, it would seriously compromise future investigations into workplace fatalities and serious incidents.

The intention of this amendment is to provide certainty that section 172 provides the privilege against self-incrimination to natural persons only. I commend the bill to members and I seek leave to insert the explanation of clauses into Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Work Health and Safety Act 2012

3—Amendment of section 172—Protection against self-incrimination

Section 172 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 provides that a person is excused from answering a question or providing information or a document under Part 9 on the ground that the answer to the question, or the information or document, may tend to incriminate the person or expose the person to a penalty. The amendment made by this clause makes it clear that the protection against self-incrimination afforded by section 172 applies only to natural persons.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Chapman.

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