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Thursday, 13 October 2011
Page: 11837

Ms LEY (Farrer) (12:45): by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) and (2):

(1)   Schedule 2, page 14 (line 29), omit "12 months", insert "3 years".

(2)   Schedule 2, item 10, page 14 (after line 31), at the end of the item, add:

(3)   For the period of 3 years after the commencement day, the following courses of training will be taken to be covered by paragraphs 72(1)(a) to (c) of the WHS Act:

   (a)   courses that were accredited under the 2006/2007 Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission's "Guidelines for the Accreditation of Occupational Health and Safety training courses for Health and Safety Representatives";

   (b)   courses that were accredited under the 2010 Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission's "Guidelines—Health and Safety Representatives training in the Commonwealth jurisdiction", and any later Guidelines for Accreditation of Occupational Health and Safety training courses for Health and Safety Representatives (as amended from time to time).

(4)   Subitem (3) applies only in relation to courses covered by paragraphs (a) and (b) of that item whose content is updated to reflect legislation in force at the time.

The coalition's amendments to this bill concern training in occupational health and safety. The training of health and safety representatives is a key aspect of implementing existing workplace health and safety, particularly in moving to the new harmonised system that we are discussing in the House today.

The way this works is that the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission, an agency under the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, is responsible and has delegated the responsibility for the accreditation of training to Comcare, as I understand. Comcare from time to time issues guidelines about what the accreditation will rely on. The bodies we are talking about are the training providers. The coalition's concerns are about the number of training providers and the fact that there seems to be a tightening of those accreditation provisions from the guidelines that were issued in 2006-07 and the guidelines that were issued in 2010. The guidelines on the commission's website make the point that health and safety representatives play a key role in improving health and safety in the workplace by ensuring that OH&S issues concerning members of the designated work group are communicated to the appropriate person for resolution. The role and powers of HSRs and the requirement for them to undertake a course of training relating to OH&S are outlined in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The act provides that the training must be provided through a course that is accredited by the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission.

When we look at the people's opportunities for training, it is important that these are as wide as possible. The concerns expressed in a submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee inquiry into this legislation were that the availability of training has dropped quite substantially. This paragraph from the submission sums up the concerns we have:

Training in occupational health and safety is always an important issue. At this time of transition to new arrangements the availability of courses is vital. Unfortunately the availability of accredited courses has been reduced by 26% since restrictive changes were introduced by the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission in 2010. In order to facilitate transition and ensure the availability of training courses, a transition enabling the continuance of courses accredited under the 2006/2007 guidelines should be provided …

The amendment we are moving is that we continue to provide the opportunities for those that were previously accredited to be training providers.

I went in search of where this initiative came from. I am not certain that I found it—perhaps the Minister representing the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations can illuminate the House—but rather breezily Comcare said new guidelines have been initiated in response to feedback from health and safety representatives in the workplace. Maybe that feedback is fine, but I would like people in considering this amendment to be aware that health and safety representatives in the workplace have a lot of power. In fact, they have considerable power under the 1991 OH&S Act. They can inspect the workplace, accompany an investigator during an investigation, represent members of the designated work group in health and safety consultations with employers, investigate complaints, initiate emergency stop-work procedures and issue a provisional improvement notice.

Madam Deputy Speaker Bird, you may know that I spent some years working as a shearers cook in western Queensland and New South Wales. We had HSR people there although they did not have such a fancy name. As a shearers cook, in the morning, somebody would make their way into the kitchen and say: 'Is everything okay, cookie? If a tin opener is not completely operational, the boys won't start and if you're worried any blowflies will get in the kitchen, the boys won't start.' I thought I had a lot of power over when the shearing commenced. Minister Crean mentioned the weight of wool bales. Unfortunately the HSR people were not able to prevent me from getting a hernia from pulling very heavy wool bales and the hernia had to be operated on. That is another story, but the point is that power that somebody in OH&S has over a workplace.

Mr Crean: What year was that?

Ms LEY: That is not an entirely appropriate question. The point is nobody was enforcing the safety provision concerning the weight of wool bales, but this is a discussion for another time. I do not want to cast aspersions on elements that may be controlling the types of people providing the training to the health and safety representatives who have the power to shut down workplaces, but I think that that training is vital. It is vital that that training be provided by as wide a range of organisations as possible. There is no problem with unions being represented in that line-up of training providers, but the coalition is concerned about the number of training providers. I think I found 13 bodies on the website, a 26 per cent drop in people providing training. This means the guidelines are very difficult to comply with and there is a bureaucratic maze in them. We are moving a sensible amendment that, at this time of transition, we continue with the accreditation of those 2006-07 providers. I do hope members will support me on that.

I know this is a debate on amendments, but in good faith I want to bring up one issue that I would like Minister Crean to hear, recognising that he represents the minister in the other place. This issue is the role of voluntary organisations. I am sure that members of this place all support their volunteers. We know what a great job they do. The senators on the committee were disturbed that there is still no clarification of the extent to which the Work Health and Safety Bill will apply to voluntary organisations. I take the minister's earlier point that we need to have the model laws in place then we will move to the tightening up or finalising of the draft regulations. It is absolutely critical that those regulations contain clear instructions to volunteer organisations. Obviously, we do not want them to be outside the provisions of OH&S but at the same time we do not want to load up our volunteer boards with incredibly onerous provisions. It is something that I know all members of this House would support. I thank the House.