Model Work Health and Safety laws will not commence on 1 January 2012 in Tasmania. On 2 December 2011, Tasmania’s Legislative Council amended the start date of the Work Health and Safety Bill 2011 to 1 January 2013. The Bill will be returned to the House of Assembly for consideration of the change when Parliament [...]
In the second half of 2011, in keeping with the ACT’s commitment to the national harmonisation of health and safety laws, the Legislative Assembly passed a new Work Health and Safety Act 2011. The new Act replaces the previous Work Safety Act 2008 on 1 January 2012. The Work Safety Act 2008 therefore ceases to [...]
The Northern Territory, in conjunction with the Commonwealth and other state and territory governments us committed to improving the work health and safety of all Australian workers and enhancing productivity by harmonising work health and safety legislation across Australia. Model legislation has been developed and all states and territories are committed to enacting the new [...]
Western Australia is one of four jurisdictions (including Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) which will not be adopting the WHS laws from 1 January 2012. The Commonwealth has not provided sufficient time for all Western Australian businesses to come up to speed with the new requirements. The model WHS regulations are still minus the mining [...]
South Australian Parliament voted to adjourn debate on the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Bill until 14 February 2012. Accordingly the new WHS legislation will not begin in SA on 1 January 2012 as previously planned. SA Government has every confidence that the nationally harmonised legislation will be approved by Parliament when it resumes in [...]
There are a number of changes to Queensland’s Codes of Practice. 1. There are 11 new codes of practice adopted by Queensland through the national harmonisation process. 2. The Recreational Diving, Recreational Technical Diving and Snorkelling Code of Practice 2010 will be remade under the Safety in Recreational Water Activities Act 2011. 3. There are [...]
Introduction There is little doubt from reading the myriad of comments made on various sites that workplace bullying and harassment continues to fuel discussion. In fact, I have just finished reading a number of comments made by some obviously very traumatised workers from the public and private sector. There are some common threads relating to: [...]
OHSA provides a great insight into the importance of training; Employers must have an overall safety program including relative site specific safety information where applicable. The safety training program should cover topics such as: Accident Prevention and Safety Promotion Safety Compliance Accident and Emergency Response Personal Protective Equipment Safety Practices Equipment and Machinery Chemical and [...]
This is a fantastic article submitted by one of our readers, Grant McCosh on evacuating people with disabilities. Mobility Impairments Since elevators should not be used for evacuation during a fire alarm, people with mobility impairments will need assistance evacuating the building unless on the ground floor. As people with mobility impairments have varying [...]
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating a fatal incident that occurred on Monday 31 October 2011 at a construction site within the University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane. A worker was killed while a formwork shutter was being raised to about one metre above the ground by crane. Lengths of timber were being [...]
National harmonisation The Victorian Government has confirmed its support to the principle of harmonisation subject to a satisfactory assessment of the impact and benefits to Victoria. The Government has initiated a supplementary Victorian specific assessment looking at the impact of the proposed laws on Victoria. It has stated that this will take several months, and [...]
Transitional arrangements have been put in place in NSW to support businesses, industry and workers move to a new system of work health and safety (WHS) laws. These arrangements start on 1 January 2012. The transitional arrangements have been based on national transitional principles agreed to by all jurisdictions. In summary, these transitional arrangements provide [...]
