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.
A global employer will down tools and conduct meetings on minimising occupational cancer risks, for World Day for Safety and Health at Work today. World safety day has also prompted renewed calls for Australia-wide industrial manslaughter provisions and an accelerated response to the review of the model WHS laws.
Laws and strategies created to protect remote health workers from violence, prompted by the murder of South Australian remote-area nurse Gayle Woodford, could be strengthened, with a coronial inquest identifying several concerning omissions.
Safe Work Australia has updated the model WHS Regulations and its guidance on the meaning of "person conducting a business or undertaking", while WHS provisions have been amended in NSW and South Australia, and the ACT has established a public register for reporting infringements by WHS licensees.
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.
An appeals court has found a woman who separated from her husband before he was killed at work is not covered by a lump sum provision made after the fatality, in an important judgment on injury laws and transitional arrangements.