The current changes are a sell out of all that the Labor Movement has worked for. When Kennett changed our Workers ,Compensation system the streets were full of protesters .Now there is no action

Irresponsible? Probably. But definitely shortsighted. For many Australian governments recently the introduction of Industrial Manslaughter has kept the questions about OHS and workers compensation largely at bay while the deficiencies and weaknesses of the underlying laws and systems have been creeping along.

I have been critical of the Victorian Government for reneging on its commitment to harmonisation but as it remains the outlier in this matter, it has the opportunity to rewrite its OHS laws for this century. It could rewrite the duty of care provision to be clearer and more readily enforced. Similarly “as far as is reasonably practicable” changes when prosecutions change what the reasonable person considers practicable and that has changed over the life of the OHS laws. Determining practicability may benefit from a review. No government will get the unions offside by updating the health and safety representative sections but they are in need of an upgrade. “Safe Systems of Work” has never been clearly explained, and Consultation and Committees remains straight out of the 1970s and should accommodate more readily the current technological capacities.

This government could be brave and become a leader in OHS again but the current politics over workers’ compensation changes shows very little desire for radical change.