By January 2012 all of Australia will be operating under a consistent set of workplace health and safety laws, sort of.· In reality, each state and territory will still have their own legislation and will still be responsible for monitoring and enforcement, but the legislation will be an exact replica of the national model Act and Regulations prepared by Safe Work Australia.· That is the theory anyway, and as with any change there are positives and negatives.

The end game

To many, the concept of national harmonisation has been the Holy Grail of safety legislation.· The idea of having one single regulatory framework across the nation has been talked about for a long time, yet for many of us in safety it was just a concept.· It was considered too hard, there would have to be too much compromise.· Of course, there are also some that are against it, and who believe it will weaken safety standards by removing some provisions that exist in certain jurisdictions. ·
Regardless, there has been an amazing amount of progress, and in the end I imagine the truth of how this will impact on all stakeholders lies somewhere in the middle. What is clear is that we were all wrong when we said it would never happen...

Itís not all smooth sailing

Of all the jurisdictions, Western Australia seems to be the only one potentially holding out, in that they have committed to the process but reserve the right to be different (I am paraphrasing there by the way, not directly quoting).· There has also been a fair bit of discussion about how the changes will affect some industries such as mining and offshore drilling.· In some jurisdictions, like Queensland, these industries are regulated under separate Acts and by different government agencies. ·
So it is possible that we will still have situations where one or two states have some different provisions (primarily where they wonít let go of specific provisions they deem as vital for safety), and it is quite possible that some industries will not be harmonised under a single Act, well not yet anyway.

Hands up who wants harmonisation

So who is really pushing for national harmonisation?· Is it big business with head office in Perth and operations in each state and territory?· Is it the medium sized business based in Tweed Heads that also provides services in Coolangatta?· Is it the consultant whose home is in Melbourne but has unobtainium frequent flyer membership status because of the miles she racks up working for her interstate clients?· Or is the national training company that ends up having different training materials for each jurisdiction?· Of course all of these players have reasons for wanting one set of rules to play by, and so are in favour.

In terms of the Federal Government, they say-

"The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has identified the harmonisation of OHS as a priority area for reform. It is an important area in contributing to the development of a seamless national economy while at the same time bringing enduring benefits to all Australians particularly employees and employers."

Hands up who doesnít want harmonisation

I guess one group that are not really pushing for harmonisation is the small to medium sized business operating in only one jurisdiction.· For them they only have one set of laws and one regulator to deal with anyway, and harmonisation will simply mean a change in legislation.· Unions are also are not totally behind the process, however they are not necessarily against harmonisation and are instead against some of the changes that they feel will weaken the legislation and therefore the protection it affords workers.

How many businesses are we talking about anyway?· Well, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006-2007 data) only 23.7 per cent of businesses provide services outside of their own state or territory, and the largest subset of this group is those businesses with 200 or more staff.· Are these businesses hanging out for harmonisation?· Some argue that because they already work across different jurisdictions they have had to develop their own harmonised policies and procedures that operate within all existing legislation already.· Maybe these companies won't see very much change either way.

It is all a matter of interpretation

A final matter for consideration is that while the Acts and Regulations for each jurisdiction will look the same, it is still up to each state and territory to monitor and enforce it.· Is it possible that this could lead to differences in how particular statutes are interpreted by inspectors?· Could a court in New South Wales apply a different level of penalty to that of Tasmania?· These scenarios are of course possible, and so are just a couple more examples of the issues to be managed as we move forward.

My final word

I believe that harmonisation is needed in Australia and that it will provide an easier, and so more effective, regulatory environment for industry as a whole.· Change is always challenging and so there will be the natural resistance to it.·· Of course, the sooner we all accept that this is happening, then the sooner we can all get back to ensuring everyone goes home from work in the same (or better) condition than when they arrived.· Especially because once this process is finished, we have the harmonisation of workers compensation legislation to tackle.

Safety Dave Whitefield

Baseline Training & Consulting