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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-02 Daily Xml
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Bills

Work Health and Safety (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (17:38): I rise to speak on the Work Health and Safety (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Bill. I would like to start by acknowledging all those women and men who have lost their lives at work. Every South Australian has a right and a fair expectation that, when they go to work, they will come home safe.

This bill delivers on the government's election commitment to introduce an offence of industrial manslaughter in South Australia. On average, a dozen South Australians die every year at work, with roughly three-quarters of these deaths occurring in just three areas: primary industries, transport and construction. Employers in these industries need to do all they can to ensure the safety of their employees. This includes guaranteeing that primary industry workers have appropriate safety training and equipment to protect them from death or injury.

In the transport industry employers need to make certain that the vehicles their employees drive are safe and roadworthy, and that they do not apply pressure on their employees to meet unrealistic time lines. The construction industry is inherently risky due to the heights, materials and machinery involved; however, it can be safe if employers and workers combine together to ensure the safety of all employees.

While accidents do happen, the first responsibility of every employer is that they provide a safe workplace. This bill sends a clear message to all employers who are reckless or grossly negligent with their workers' health and safety that they will be held to account. A person can be convicted of industrial manslaughter if they breach a health and safety duty, either recklessly or with gross negligence, and this causes the death of another person. This includes the primary duty of care of a person conducting a business or undertaking to ensure, as far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of the workers they engage.

We are not speaking of accidents in this bill but of recklessness or gross negligence, people deliberately endangering the lives of workers in our state. The purpose of this bill is to deter unsafe work practices; additionally, we recognise the significant and traumatic loss suffered by the families of victims of workplace tragedies.

It is important to note that this bill does not introduce any new legal obligations on employers that they do not already have. Every employer currently has the responsibility to ensure the safety of their workers. This bill ensures that there is an appropriate penalty when those obligations are breached.

The bill is the product of extensive consultation with businesses, with unions and with health and safety experts, and now brings South Australia into line with other jurisdictions, including Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT, all of which have introduced industrial manslaughter legislation. The bill is drafted to be consistent with most states and territories. Commonwealth, state and territory work health and safety ministers also agreed earlier this year that industrial manslaughter will form part of the model national laws.

The maximum penalties under this bill are a fine of up to $18 million for companies and imprisonment for up to 20 years for individuals. This should act as a significant disincentive for those in our community who do not value and prioritise the safety and lives of workers. There is no place for recklessness or gross negligence in our workplaces.

I encourage all workers to join their union, to ensure their workplace has trained work health and safety reps, and to report any safety concerns they have regarding their workplace to their managers, their health and safety reps, or SafeWork SA. I would like to thank all union reps, our trade union movement and SafeWork SA for the work they do raising and investigating safety issues. I commend the bill to the house.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (17:43): I am very pleased to rise to speak in this debate on the Work Health and Safety (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Bill 2023, a bill that has been long called for by many members of our South Australian community—and rightly so.

Our South Australian government absolutely believes that every worker deserves a fair go, that every worker should be treated with dignity and respect, and that every worker deserves to be safe in their workplace and to arrive home from work each day or night or afternoon to their loved ones safe, healthy, happy and satisfied with the work they have undertaken during their particular shift.

Having represented workers in a range of settings—in the community sector, in local government, in the legal industry, in the transport industry, in energy, in the finance sector, those working as clerical and administrative workers in call centres and a range of other settings—I have witnessed what can happen when workers suffer a work-related injury. I have witnessed the difficulties and the ongoing trauma and pain that a worker can experience, and the ongoing impact that this can have on that worker, but also on their loved ones, on their family life, on their ongoing ability to positively engage in community life, and to sometimes re-engage in their particular work environment.

I have also seen the utter devastation that can happen for families, for colleagues, for communities, indeed for employers, when the very worst happens, when someone's life ends as a result of a dreadful work accident, an accident that could in no way be prevented.

Some years ago I met Andrea Madeley, an extraordinarily courageous lovely woman who spoke with me at that time about her precious son, Daniel, who tragically lost his life at work. It was heartbreaking. I was deeply honoured to support Andrea and other families suffering similar terrible bereavement, to support Andrea as she and others set about establishing an annual church service on 28 April each year, the International Workers' Memorial Day.

I remember very, very clearly the first church service. I remember the atmosphere there. I remember each family that was there honouring their loved ones, with photos of their loved ones, lighting candles for their loved ones, and just how much they held their loved ones in their hearts and in their minds on what was no doubt an incredibly difficult day in what would have been—and I am sure is continuing to be—a really difficult journey that they traverse.

It was heartbreaking, it was deeply moving, and it was absolutely a call to action. I thank Andrea and those others for their courage, for their resilience, and for the ongoing support that Andrea has provided to so many others who have also traversed such a heartbreaking journey through her tireless advocacy and her tireless calling for this particular change.

This Work Health and Safety (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Bill 2023 rightly progresses a commitment that our government made at the election, and is one that sits alongside a series of really important impactful industrial reforms that our Attorney-General is progressing, reforms that reflect our government's steadfast commitment to improve work health and safety for the entire South Australian community, and to hold those who are utterly reckless about work health and safety to account.

Today, as we progress this really important reform, we are ensuring that although we recognise that devastating, tragic accidents—things that are unavoidable—happen, there is an appropriate penalty absolutely incurred when tragedies occur as a result of the reckless negligence of employers in relation to the health and safety welfare obligations they have to their employees.

As outlined in this bill, this does not introduce any new legal obligations on employers. Rather, rightly, as the member for Gibson has set out, it ensures an appropriate level of penalty for that negligence for the breaches of those very serious obligations that cause the death of another person.

This obligation includes the primary duty of care of a person conducting a business or undertaking (a PCBU) to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of workers they engage. As the member for Gibson and others have done, I wholeheartedly thank the many unions and workers who have rightly been advocating for these reforms for some years and the many unions, businesses and health and safety professionals who participated in the extensive consultation process that has led us to this moment of introduction of this bill.

Particularly, in making those acknowledgements, I really want to thank the incredible network of health and safety reps in workplaces right across our state, those workers who, as well as undertaking their particular role with diligence, choose to represent their fellow workers. They do so with a desire to ensure that their fellow workers do have access to environments and practices that are safe and healthy for them in every part of their work. They are an extraordinary group of people, as I said, who generously decide to volunteer their time at work on top of the particular role that they undertake.

I want to mention that a number of those representatives for many years have undertaken various training and particular courses, etc., to learn about how they exercise their responsibilities in relation to people's physical health, safety and welfare. Increasingly, I know that many of those health and safety reps are also deeply learning mental health first aid and undertaking a whole other set of duties, again very generously, to be aware themselves and to raise awareness in their workplace about mental ill-health, to promote the checking in with people and supporting and connecting people to resources should they be unsafe at work in that particular way or be dealing with mental ill-health in any aspect of their life.

I also want to thank, as well as unions and businesses who have engaged in this process, those work health and safety reps who often undertake those roles for a very, very long period of time with and for their fellow workers. They now do so in other ways as well, providing that really important mental health awareness.

As has been stated, the introduction of appropriate penalties will see a maximum penalty set as a fine of up to $18 million for companies and imprisonment for up to 20 years for individuals. As I said at the beginning of my remarks, the overwhelming majority of employers ensure that their workplaces across South Australia absolutely take the health, safety and welfare of the workers they engage really seriously and, rightly, follow every necessary health, safety and welfare requirement.

While I know that is the case, that it is the overwhelming majority, it is really important, as this bill does, that we send a very clear message to those who do not similarly take their obligations seriously and deliberately cut corners or undertake their operations in particularly unsafe ways that potentially place workers' lives at risk and potentially also put workers at risk of injury. This absolutely sends a very clear message to those that they will be held to account, and rightly so.

As well as deterring unsafe work practices and sending that very clear message to that minority of employers who do not engage in appropriate health and safety requirements, this bill also rightly recognises the enormous, traumatic loss suffered by families and other loved ones of victims of workplace tragedies. I think it has been said before in this debate that, tragically, every year on average sadly around a dozen South Australians die at work, with the majority of these tragedies occurring in the sectors of primary industries, transport and construction.

As I said before, when speaking about the incredible Andrea Madeley, I also offer my love to all of those families who have suffered this unspeakable loss of a loved one through a workplace incident. I also thank so many of those family members who, following this utterly tragic loss, have raised their voices and advocated for greater workplace safety and for the introduction of the penalties that we progress in this debate today.

I think it is extraordinary when somebody does go through such a traumatic experience that they actually choose to give their voice, their time, their energy and their passion fronting up to add to the calls, to the consultation that will ensure, or help ensure, that other families do not have to go through such a difficult experience as they have done. Again, I offer my love to all of those families who have spoken up in that way.

I am really proud, again, that this legislation that has long been called for is now progressing through this parliament. I am very proud that through the progression of this legislation South Australia will be brought into line with a number of other jurisdictions that have moved rightly similar legislation. I am proud that we will be brought into line with jurisdictions including Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, which have also introduced similar industrial manslaughter laws.

This bill, I understand, is consistent with the majority of other similar laws right across this country. I understand that, alongside this bill bringing South Australia into line with the majority of jurisdictions, the Attorney-General and industrial relations ministers or work health and safety ministers—depending on which jurisdiction you are in and in terms of which particular portfolio construction there is—have also agreed that industrial manslaughter will form part of the model national laws.

This is also an incredible step forward in terms of each jurisdiction and us a nation very importantly sending that message about what the expectation is in terms of looking after and caring for workers, and what every jurisdiction says to those who are reckless about the health, safety and welfare of workers in any industrial setting. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.


At 17:59 the house adjourned until Tuesday 14 November 2023 at 11:00.

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