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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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Parliamentary Committees

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION: ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (17:02): I move:

That the 15th report of the committee, entitled Annual Report 2012-13, be noted.

One of the functions of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation is to keep the administration and operation of legislation affecting occupational safety, rehabilitation and compensation under constant review. The committee also has a function to examine and recommend to the executive and parliament about proposed regulations, particularly in relation to statutory bodies such as WorkCover.

The committee can also inquire into health and safety and workers rehabilitation and compensation matters on its own resolution or by referral from either house of parliament. To this end, on 12 May 2012, the committee resolved to inquire into occupational health and safety responsibilities of SafeWork SA and the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency. On 1 January 2013, the new model of the Work Health and Safety Act and regulations came into effect in South Australia, and this has provided the committee with a further incentive to undertake the inquiry.

Historically, there have been several different structural models of occupational health, safety and welfare—now known as 'work health and safety' in South Australia. Following the Stanley review in 2003, all occupational health and safety functions were merged into a new entity—SafeWork SA. This is the first inquiry into the state's health and safety system since the Stanley review. Mr Deputy Speaker, I know you will remember this very well because I think you were minister at the time.

SafeWork SA has a responsibility to deliver proactive education and enforcement and health and safety programs to all citizens within South Australia, regardless of their relationship to WorkCover. This requires SafeWork SA to deliver information, training and education to the community; to students who are getting ready to enter the workforce; to small businesses, which are diverse; to volunteers; and to many other stakeholder groups.

The Work Health and Safety Act is new legislation with new terminology, new enforcement provisions and many new codes of practice which need to be understood. SafeWork SA must communicate and consult with businesses and other effective groups regarding implementation, monitoring, enforcement and management accountability.

In addition to the challenges of implementing new legislation in the past 10 or 20 years, there have been many changes to the way people work. There is now much more contracting, as well as temporary labour hire arrangements, franchising and small businesses that operate from home. These business arrangements are varied and complex, and when a small business tenders for work with larger organisations it is required to show evidence of an effective safety management system. This is not always easy for small business, which is a major contributor to the state's economy.

South Australia achieved a 43.7 per cent improvement in the rate of serious injuries per 1,000 employees between 2008-09 and 2011-12, in comparison to the national average of 27.7 per cent for the same period. While this is a significant achievement, South Australia's record of 10.3 serious injuries per thousand workers is slightly below the national average of 10.7. SafeWork still has a lot of work ahead of it to continue to drive down injury rates in this state.

The committee received a variety of submissions from both employer and employee organisations and appreciated the opportunity to hear from a wide range of witnesses. A number of consistent themes emerged from the evidence. In particular, the lack of medium to long-term strategic planning and resource constraints were identified as issues that prevent SafeWork from effectively delivering prevention programs to citizens of South Australia.

The committee noted the lack of resources can be easily claimed as a reason for not undertaking certain activities, but there needs to be a focus on reviewing operational demands to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of core business programs. The funding arrangements to SafeWork from WorkCover appear to be arbitrary and at the discretion of WorkCover, with no appeal rights by SafeWork SA.

On occasions, WorkCover has delayed decisions about funding for SafeWork SA programs, and this has adversely affected SafeWork's ability to implement planned prevention programs. There is a need to review the funding arrangements to ensure that a more effective, efficient and responsive regulatory and prevention scheme is delivered to South Australia's businesses and the community.

A large challenge for all regulators is how they communicate health and safety messages to small businesses, which are both time and resource poor. There needs to be a proactive collaboration between SafeWork and larger organisations that have a vested interest in improving safety performance. New technologies will also play an important role in the communication of key initiatives.

There is a large network of independent work health and safety practitioners and businesses, including self-insured employers, who have previously been recognised in this place for their good safety performance. This network provides valuable resources in the education and capacity building of small to medium businesses. SafeWork has a responsibility to merge with this network to ensure a consistent approach in the delivery of work health and safety information, education and training.

Another challenge for SafeWork is a great demand for inspectors in the private sector, where salaries are higher. It is important that all inspectors are competent and at the top of their game, which requires training, development and succession planning. The benefit of being an inspector should be promoted. I note there is a very good short video on this very issue available on SafeWork SA's website. The video promotes the benefits and diversity of inspection work.

Many witnesses were critical about the lack of inspectorate expertise in high occupations and the failure of SafeWork SA to effectively investigate complex serious incidents, such as the Spin Dragon, which occurred some years before. Many of us will remember that terrible incident. SafeWork SA needs to develop a strategy for dealing with these types of incidents, such as using other public sector experts, cross-jurisdictional share of expertise or the use of consultants at a cost.

Witnesses did not support the merging of SafeWork SA's responsibilities with WorkCover because of the potential conflict of interest. Many also thought that WorkCover had its own problems with the unfunded liability, which is reported to be $1.366 million, which is 67.7 per cent of the funding ratio for the 2012-13 financial year.

In view of these factors, the committee formed the view that the current arrangements should remain. The committee has also made a number of recommendations that aim to address the issues raised in the inquiry.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have made submissions to our committee, and particularly thank members of the committee: the member for Mitchell, the member for Schubert, the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, the Hon. John Darley, and the Hon. Rob Lucas, for their contributions and deliberations. I would also like to mention the Hon. Russell Wortley who has been part of this committee as well. I also want to thank the committee staff, particularly Sue Sedivy, who have contributed to the preparation of this report.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Gardner.

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