In October 2006 the NSW Government referred the State’s successful Occupational Health and Safety Act to an eminent former judge, the Honourable Paul Stein AM, QC, together with the Report on the 2006 statutory review of the OHS Act, for advice and review. The Honourable Paul Stein is a former Judge of the NSW Court of Appeal and of the Supreme Court of NSW.
The Honourable Paul Stein was asked to consider whether the proposals arising from the Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000, or any changes, are required to the occupational health and safety legislation to better secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work. In addition, he was also asked to consider the impacts of the proposals, having regard to best practice solutions that will remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on business, without compromising safety.
The Government received the Hon Paul Stein’s Inquiry Report in late April 2007 which recommended that many of the proposals arising from the Review Report be adopted.
The recommendations made by the Honourable Paul Stein should not be considered to be the policy position of the New South Wales Government. The Stein Inquiry Report has been released to assist public debate on the future of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws in Australia.
Inquiry into NSW Occupational Health and Safety Legislation
The NSW Government has referred the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act to an Inquiry headed by the Hon Paul Stein AM, QC for advice and review.
The Inquiry is to:
- To review the proposals arising from the Report on the Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000, tabled in the NSW Parliament on the 2 May 2006 and consider whether these, or any changes, are required to the occupational health and safety legislation to better secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work.
- Consider the impacts of the above proposals, having regard to best practice solutions that will remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on business, without compromising safety.
Public submissions to the Inquiry were invited from industry, employer and employee representatives and other interested parties. The closing date for public submissions was 15 December 2006, however a few organisations sought and received extensions up until 22 December 2006.
Copies of the submissions are provided below except where persons requested that their submission not be published on the web.
The Hon Paul Stein AM, QC will be analysing the issues raised through the public consultation process and will be providing a report on the outcome of the inquiry to the Minister on 30 April 2007.
Public submissions to the Inquiry
Background Information:
On 16 June 2005 the Hon John Della Bosca MLC, Minister for Commerce, announced the 5-year statutory review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 to determine whether the Act’s objectives remain valid and whether the provisions of the Act remain appropriate for securing those objectives.
An extensive public consultation process has been conducted since June 2005. The Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 Discussion Paper was released on 28 June 2005 for public comment until 19 August 2005 with late submissions received up until 26 October 2005.
Following up on issues raised in public submissions, five additional Issue Papers were released covering matters relating to: outworkers; recognition between safety inspectorates; offences for fraudulent activities; the role of codes of practice in the occupational health and safety framework; and controllers of work premises. The Issue Papers were released from 22 December 2005 until 10 February 2006.
The Report on the Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 was tabled in Parliament on the 2 May 2006 and at the same time the draft Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2006 was released for public comment from 2 May 2006 until 7 July 2006.