Browsing: WHS Harmonisation (QLD) | Page 4

• Five options flagged for WA safety laws;
  
• New WHS regulations postponed in Queensland;
  
• Tasmania's safest employers and workers announced; and
  
• Did you miss our latest quarterly update?

In this update, OHS Alert examines the most important workplace safety and workers' comp news from the third quarter of 2014, including Safe Work Australia's controversial decision to dump draft Codes of Practice in favour of guidance packages, and other legislative developments.

Union "abuses" of safety issues would be reduced if each relevant jurisdiction followed Queensland's lead on amending model WHS right-of-entry provisions, according to Master Builders Australia.

In only the third case of its type, a Queensland employer has entered a $200,000 enforceable undertaking under the mirror WHS laws, after two workers were injured when a tyre exploded.

Proposed and actual major changes to the harmonised WHS Acts, as well as surprising developments in the non-harmonised states, dominated OHS Alert's pages in the second quarter of 2014. Check out this review of all the most important safety and workers' compensation news from the three months to 30 June.

Stakeholders in the harmonised states and territories are being asked to comment on whether the model WHS laws should be amended to include stricter entry rules and less prescriptive regulations - but they've been given just days to do so.

Nine more draft model WHS Codes of Practice - including those covering scaffolding, forklifts and plant supply - have been dumped in favour of guidance material.

WA reviewing strict supervision-related safety rules; and Qld commits to harmonising mine safety laws "where possible".

WHS Codes of Practice have been adopted, tweaked or released for comment in Queensland and NSW, while the MUA has slammed a renewed call to scrap the draft WHS Code for stevedoring in the wake of a workplace death.

New HSR and entry-permit rules, higher electrical safety fines and a host of WHS Regulation amendments all commenced in Queensland this morning.