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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-17 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

Independent Review of SafeWork SA's Investigation into the Death of Gayle Woodford

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:22): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement on the topic of a review into SafeWork SA's investigation into the death of Gayle Woodford.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: In March 2016, Gayle Woodford was tragically killed in the community of Fregon, where she lived and worked as a nurse for the Nganampa Health Council. Her murderer, Dudley Davey, was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment in June 2017. Following the conclusion of a coronial inquest in 2021, SafeWork SA reopened its investigation into whether the Nganampa Health Council should be prosecuted for contraventions of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 relating to Ms Woodford's death.

In April 2022, after a 12-month investigation, SafeWork determined not to proceed with a prosecution on the basis there was no reasonable prospect of conviction of a criminal offence under the Work Health and Safety Act. This determination was reached following SafeWork's receipt of advice from independent senior counsel and former senior prosecutor Mark Norman QC.

This determination was communicated to the Woodford family on 11 April 2022. Since SafeWork's determination, concerns have been raised by various parties about the conduct of this matter. I have spoken with those supporting the Woodford family, and I thank them for their time in representing the family's views and concerns.

The government has determined to investigate the concerns raised by appointing former Federal Court judge the Hon. John Mansfield AM QC to undertake an independent review into the adequacy of SafeWork SA's investigation into the death of Gayle Woodford and its engagement with the Woodford family during that investigation.

Mr Mansfield was appointed as Queen's Counsel in 1985 and served as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia for nearly 20 years prior to his retirement in 2016. He is widely respected within both the legal profession and the broader community. Mr Mansfield's review will be completed by 15 July 2022 and will be made publicly available.

Prior to the last election, the Malinauskas government promised a review into the practices and procedures of SafeWork SA. That review will be a separate piece of work which will consider both SafeWork's investigative and prosecution functions and the regulatory arrangements around work health and safety more broadly. The details of that review will be announced in due course. However, I can assure the council that review will have appropriate regard to the outcomes of Mr Mansfield's review into the Woodford matter specifically.

Again, my thoughts are with the Woodford family. No review or inquiry can make up for the loss of Gayle, and I know personally how much she was appreciated by the Fregon community.

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