Provisions enabling the "aggregation of conduct" are being added to the ACT's WHS laws to deal with offences like reckless conduct, hindering inspectors and supplying incorrectly labelled chemicals, under a Bill that also significantly increases WHS penalties.
Australia has taken a big leap towards banning engineered stone products, with the country's WHS ministers agreeing to release a "powerful and compelling" Safe Work Australia report that recommends the ban, and warns there is no evidence that alternative measures can curb the alarming rate of silicosis in engineered stone workers.
All but one of Australia's eight harmonised WHS jurisdictions have now introduced the new model clauses on psychosocial risks, with the ACT being the latest to do so, while joining a subgroup that has chosen to prescribe the use of the hierarchy of controls for these risks.
From next week, employers in Canberra will have a duty to report "actual or suspected" incidents of workplace s-xual assault to a WHS regulator, under new laws that also ban insurance against WHS penalties.