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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-10 Daily Xml
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WORKPLACE SAFETY

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:16): I have a supplementary question. As the new minister, does the minister give greater priority to spending scarce SafeWork SA dollars on inspector positions, which have just been cut, or research positions for projects?

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for Gambling) (15:17): What the government does and what I will be doing as minister is ensure that we have an agency that is able to successfully administer the occupational health, safety and welfare legislation in this state.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: The Coroner thinks there's a lack of urgency.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: The Hon. Mr Wade is interjecting again about the findings of the Coroner. I notice that there were no questions regarding this matter yesterday, the day that the actual report came out and the day that I made a ministerial statement. Until it made the television news and the front page of The Advertiser, none of these honourable members showed any interest. They did not respond to my ministerial statement. They did not ask a question; they did not raise the matter at all, but suddenly they thought, 'Oh, look, the media have taken an interest in this; let's see if we can capitalise on this tragedy and turn it into a political issue.' I think that is a disgraceful approach.

What I can say in relation to the Hon. Mr Lucas's supplementary question is that the government is responsible for ensuring the administration of the law, and we will do that and make resource allocations to ensure that the law is administered properly and that the best health and safety regime that we can put in place for South Australian workers is in place. Resource decisions are based on the need to ensure that the law is administered properly and that as much is done as can be done to ensure that health and safety is a priority in South Australian workplaces and that injuries and deaths are minimised as much as possible.

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