Browsing: WHS Harmonisation (SA)

Australia's WHS ministers have agreed to amend the model WHS Regulations to prescribe control measures for psychological risks, and significantly increase safety penalties, but proposed industrial manslaughter laws were voted down at their meeting yesterday.

The South Australian Greens have reintroduced a Bill to create a new offence of industrial manslaughter, but with a maximum fine of $13 million, well above the $1 million it proposed last year.

The model WHS laws could be amended to increase the focus on psychological health, with the public consultation process for the ongoing review of the laws identifying widespread concerns over this issue and the absence of a "notification trigger" for psychological injuries.

Safe Work Australia has launched the public consultation process for the review of the model WHS laws, posing 37 questions for discussion and pointing to the reasons why industrial manslaughter provisions weren't included in the Act.

• Harmonised HSR powers pass both Houses of SA Parliament;
  
• Death benefits increased and de facto clauses removed in WA; and
  
• WA accelerates FIFO Code, releases four-step anti-bullying guide.

Two of the first entities charged with reckless conduct under harmonised WHS laws have failed to overturn the charges, with a full court rejecting their claim that their duty to "other persons" was limited to the exact time of their alleged recklessness.

A parliamentary committee will inquire into an abandoned fatality-related WHS prosecution, while the powers of South Australian HSRs will be aligned with other states, if initiatives moved by the Greens are passed.

Individuals could lose the protection against self-incrimination in the WHS Act in South Australia, with a mandatory review examining whether the unique provisions of the State's mirror Act adversely affect its operation.

A not-for-profit organisation that assigns apprentices to host employers has become the first entity to be convicted for breaching the consultation provisions of the model WHS Act.

NSW has updated seven of its mirror WHS Codes of Practice to reflect changes that Safe Work Australia made to the model versions of the documents earlier this year.