Significant reforms to South Australia’s work health and safety system are set to become law after passing State Parliament today.

The Work Health and Safety (Review Recommendations) Amendment Bill 2024 makes important changes to health and safety laws following recommendations of the Independent Review of SafeWork SA released last year.

The Independent Review was conducted by Mr John Merritt, a widely respected former executive director of WorkSafe Victoria, and was a key industrial relations commitment at the last election.

The Independent Review involved extensive stakeholder consultation with over 50 meetings with business associations, trade unions, health and safety professionals, and families of workers who have lost their lives at work.

Important reforms introduced as part of this Bill include:

• Giving the state’s independent industrial umpire – the South Australian Employment Tribunal (SAET) – a greater role in helping settle workplace disputes about health and safety issues, with a priority on alternative dispute resolution processes like conciliation and mediation.
• Establishing the SafeWork SA Advisory Committee, a tripartite body including a broad cross-section of stakeholders to advise SafeWork SA and the Government on ways to improve work health and safety.
• Reforming restrictive confidentiality rules which have kept victims and their families in the dark about what action is being taken by SafeWork SA in response to a safety incident.

Changes to SAET’s dispute resolution powers in the Bill are closely modelled on similar amendments made to Queensland’s WHS laws in 2017, which have now operated successfully for nearly 7 years.

This Bill follows an extensive period of consultation over 18 months between the Government and stakeholders including industry associations, trade unions, and representatives of victims and their families.

Attributable to Peter Malinauskas

Every worker, no matter their job, deserves to go home safely to their family at the end of the working day.

Highly-credentialed independent reviewer John Merritt undertook extensive consultation with business and labour representatives which informed this legislation.

These reforms strike the right balance for business and workers, ensuring safer, fairer workplace safety laws.

Attributable to Kyam Maher

These reforms will help resolve workplace disputes about health and safety issues at an early stage before serious injuries and workplace deaths can occur.

Current confidentiality rules have caused significant distress by keeping victims and their families in the dark about what action SafeWork SA is taking in response to health and safety incidents.

These reforms will ensure more information can be provided by SafeWork SA, building community confidence in our health and safety regulator.

This Bill reflects extensive consultation with both industry associations and unions, and is focussed on achieving the one thing everyone agrees is most important: making South Australian workplaces safer.