Browsing: WHS Harmonisation (WA) | Page 3

Western Australia has approved the development of a single mirror WHS Bill, dumping plans for a separate Bill for the resources sector and hinting that the laws will be more consistent with the national model Act than previous drafts.

• Electricity and gas safety laws amended in NSW and Vic;
  
• New WHS resources laws underpin three-year WA plan;
  
• Supply chain guides released in lead up to CoR laws; and
  
• Workers' comp medical panel to slash approval times in NSW.

• Makeshift dust-avoidance strategy creates fatal risk; and
  
• New harmonisation Minister lasts four days in WA.

• Could workplace diesel exhaust be more hazardous than we think?
  
• Chain-of-responsibility sessions coming to four states; and
  
• Ministers appointed to oversee WHS harmonisation in WA.

The new Western Australian Government could amend its draft WHS laws to include union-led prosecutions and 20-year jail terms for recklessness, and attempt to block the expansion of the Comcare scheme, Labor Party policy documents show.

The future of harmonised work safety laws in Western Australia will be in the hands of the next State Government, with a regulator today confirming that the WHS Bill for the resources sector won't be introduced before the March 2017 election.

Stakeholders are being urged to comment on proposed WHS Regulations for the Western Australian resources sector, which include 51 "key" changes and do not align with the national model WHS Regulations.

• Modernised WHS laws postponed in WA;
  
• Blood-test Bill passes in NT; and
  
• Electrical, truck and fume alerts issued.

A report informing the development of harmonised WHS laws for general industry in Western Australia has recommended making 132 changes to the national model WHS Regulations before adopting them in the State.

The modernised WHS Bill for the Western Australian resources sector could be amended to make it clear that a worker's right to cease unsafe work extends to protecting the safety of others, under one of range of recommendations in an RIS on the Bill.