Berry Moves To Extend Occupational Health And Safety Provisions - Again

Wayne Berry - Opposition Spokesperson on Industrial Relations

Media Statement - 6 September 2000

Labor Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Wayne Berry today introduced bills to extend the time for prosecutions under the Occupational Health and Safety and Dangerous Goods Acts. The amendments will allow for prosecutions under both Acts to be carried out up to 3 years after the report of a Coronial inquiry is handed down.

"I have moved a second time to extend these provisions," Mr Berry said.

"When the Acts were passed it was not envisaged that action might be delayed by lengthy, complex Coronial inquiries, but the bungled Hospital Implosion has created a set of circumstances where the Coronial inquiry took over two years to finalise and, a year later, the criminal charges arising from the Coronial inquiry are still to be heard.

"We expect the criminal charges to be heard from March next year and I want to ensure that opportunities for prosecution under the Occupational Health and Safety and Dangerous Goods Acts are not lost.

"In announcing these amendments today I make no inference as to the outcome of the ongoing inquiry into the Hospital Implosion, the criminal charges before the courts or to any of the actions of anyone who may be in any way associated with the matter.

"This legislative proposal simply remedies once again the problem identified in 1998. It has been introduced into the Assembly this week to give Members ample time to consider the matter before the 4th November deadline which arises on the first anniversary of the report on the Coronial Inquiry into the Hospital Implosion," Mr Berry concluded.