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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-02 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation: Annual Report 2015-16

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:08): I move:

That the report of the committee, entitled Annual Report 2015-16, be noted.

I am pleased to present the 10th annual report of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation. It reflects another busy year for the committee and the commitment of members, who have many other commitments and responsibilities. The committee's primary function is to keep the administration and operation of legislation affecting occupational health and safety, rehabilitation and compensation under continuous review. This is an important function and one the committee takes seriously.

During the 2015-16 reporting period, the committee continued its inquiries into work-related mental health and suicide prevention. This inquiry is important in that it reflects the increased community focus on mental health issues and the role that everyone plays in preventing mental health harm and suicide.

Under the Work Health and Safety Act, a person conducting a business or undertaking (a PCBU) has a duty of care to ensure psychological as well as physical health and wellbeing for workers. The previous Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act was focused only on physical health and wellbeing. Whilst the inclusion of psychological health in the Work Health and Safety Act is relatively new, there are many organisations doing good work in this area.

Those at risk of suicide are mainly men of working age, but women record high levels of attempted suicide. The World Health Organisation reports that depression is one of the major reasons for disability and estimates that it will be the number one health concern in developed nations by 2030. Depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental health disorders and are very treatable, but left untreated they can lead to the risk of suicide—and the number is more than twice the road fatality rate.

The inquiry into work-related mental health and suicide prevention provided the committee with an important opportunity to hear from a range of individuals and organisations that are making a difference, but there is still much more to be done to encourage men, in particular, to seek help when they are doing it tough. The committee has also been inquiring into the Work Health and Safety (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Bill, which was referred from the Legislative Council. The Hon. Tammy Franks MLC, from the other place, stated that we needed safer workplaces and that fatality rates were rising.

The committee agrees that there has always been a need to focus on improving safety, particularly as technology changes and as young people enter into unfamiliar workplaces and older people work longer. All these things challenge businesses to stay informed and ensure they are doing their best to make sure their workers go home at the end of each day without injury or illness. Data on workplace fatalities now includes road traffic fatalities and bystanders who are killed as a direct result of a work activity, which can give the appearance that fatalities are increasing when, in fact, they are reducing.

Men are more likely to die at work than women because of the industries in which they work. High-risk industries such as transport, warehousing and agriculture, forestry and fishing are largely male dominated and therefore reflect the higher male fatality rate. SafeWork SA places a high focus on monitoring these industries to ensure compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act and subordinate legislation.

As well as undertaking these two major inquiries, the committee has undertaken two field trips during the reporting period. In October 2015 the committee undertook a field trip to the Hillgrove Resources copper mine and Kanmantoo Bluestone quarry, which are both located about 55 kilometres from the CBD.

These businesses are quite different. The Hillgrove Resources copper mine is an open cut mine employing 190 people and many contractors. It has a high focus on safety and works closely with the Kanmantoo community on issues relating to dust, noise, lighting and environmental rehabilitation. The Kanmantoo Bluestone quarry is a small, family-owned business with historical significance that provides slate and aggregate as well as crushed rock for road bases.

These visits were facilitated by the Mining and Quarrying Occupational Health and Safety Committee and SafeWork SA. The committee is very appreciative of their assistance and advice in arranging the visits, which were very informative. I would also like to particularly thank the owners of the Kanmantoo Bluestone quarry for their assistance and guidance on that day.

In November 2015, the committee visited the Riverland for two days, during which time it visited Accolade Wines (Berri Estates), Almondco and Costa Exchange as well as the Berri Hospital. The committee also took the opportunity to visit the SafeWork SA office in Berri to learn about their education and enforcement programs within the region.

It was a privilege for the committee to visit the Riverland region, and I would particularly like to thank the member for Chaffey, Mr Tim Whetstone, for his assistance during that visit. It was also a real pleasure and privilege to visit the Kanmantoo mining region. Both of these field trips provided the committee with an opportunity to learn about the businesses and the challenges they face and how those challenges are being addressed.

These visits followed on from the committee's inaugural field trip the previous year to the beautiful Barossa Valley, which was hosted by the member for Schubert, where we undertook three site visits. We thank again the member for Schubert and team Schubert for their assistance during that visit.

In 2017, the committee plans undertake more regional visits, and in particular we will visit Whyalla and Roxby as part of our inquiry into the Return to Work Act and scheme, which was referred from the other place. We will be talking to the member for Giles, in particular, to assist the committee to plan these visits. As a result of the increased workload the committee has been experiencing, we will shortly be engaging a research officer to assist the very busy executive officer.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who have contributed to the inquiries undertaken by the committee. We have met many people as witnesses and also on our field trips. I would like to thank those people who took the time to make the effort to prepare submissions and speak to the committee. I would also like to thank the businesses in the Riverland and Kanmantoo that were so welcoming; they provided valuable insight into work and life in their unique regions.

I extend my thanks to the members of the committee: the member for Schubert and the member for Fisher and, from the other place, the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, the Hon. John Darley and the Hon. John Dawkins. My thanks also go to the committee's executive officer, Ms Sue Sedivy, who does a marvellous job for us all.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (11:17): I will not hold up the house for long, except to say that I have been on this committee for over two years now and it has become more and more rewarding the longer we go on and do our work together. We are very much the little committee that could. We have undertaken a large number of inquiries, as the member for Ashford has talked about.

The industrial issues that are presented to us in the main are not new issues and there is an ongoing need to try to find a balance and a way through. It is interesting that a lot of the testimony and advice that we get comes from two different sides, and sometimes those two different sides can be quite conflicting in the way that they present evidence to us.

What excites me is the fact that our committee works extremely well together and actually seeks to find the truth of the argument and the best way forward with a very common sense and knowledgeable approach. It is quite exciting for me. It is one of those things that the people of South Australia could do well to look at more closely because it is a great example of parliamentarians from all sides coming together with goodness in their hearts and good intent to bring about positive and sensible change.

I want to thank Sue Sedivy certainly and the other members of the committee for another fantastic year. I would also like to thank members in the other house for giving us the opportunity to undertake what I think will be a mammoth inquiry over the next 12 months as we deal with the new referral that has just been put to us to review the return-to-work scheme.

I very much look forward to that as we deal with this very important topic of how we can keep people in their work places safe, how we make sure everyone goes home to their loved ones happy and healthy every night whilst making sure that we do so in a way that does not deliver undue burden, cost or red tape and that we indeed find that middle ground that provides the best outcomes for everybody involved in industrial situations.

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:19): I would like to thank the members again for their contribution, as well as our wonderful executive officer, and hope that our annual report will be noted.

Motion carried.

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