EMPLOYERS who commit safety offences will be hit with significantly increased fines as part of Western Australia’s push to bring the state’s penalties for breaching occupational health and safety legislation in line with the rest of the country.

WA has signalled to move to more nationally harmonised WHS legislation, however, as mentioned in an earlier news update article, the resources industry will be allowed to continue using a risk-based approach to work health and safety in Western Australia.

It comes after the WA Labor Government announced the development of a modernised Work Health and Safety Bill. The Bill will be based on the national Work Health and Safety Act, most other States and Territories adopted more than five years ago. Victoria has yet to adopt the harmonised laws but appears likely to do so.

Mines and Petroleum, Commerce and Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston said there will be extensive consultation with stakeholders and the community before the Bill is expected to be introduced into Parliament in mid-2019.

Based on AREEA’s previous experiences with states adopting the harmonised laws, there are likely to be some differences from the model Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and any Work Health and Safety Bill that which the Western Australian government may seek to introduce.

In July 2017, Mr Johnston established a Ministerial Advisory Panel (MAP) on Work Health and Safety (WHS) Reform to advise on the development of a single harmonised and amalgamated WHS Act, covering general industry and the resources sector in Western Australia (WA).

Mr Johnston appointed Stephanie Mayman as the Chair of the MAP, Chair of the Commission for Occupational Safety and Health.

Representatives from the Government, industry bodies and UnionsWA are on the MAP.

Key issues likely to be discussed include: the inclusion of tan offence of gross negligent conduct, the ability for unions to institute prosecutions; the level of specificity of industry regulations (for example the framework relating to fly-in, fly-out workers); and the due diligence obligations of directors and senior managers.

While envisaging a longer term objective of harmonisation of the WHS Act with that which applies throughout the rest of Australia, the Western Australian Government has also announced a more immediate  intention to legislate to greatly increase the  penalties for offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1984 (OHS Act). The foreshadowed changes include increasing the maximum term of imprisonment from two to five years for current offence provisions.

The new penalties will be consistent with the national model Work Health and Safety Act (Model Act), with a further increase for inflation (1.14 per cent) likely to be included.

Based on the media released issue by the WA government, first offence fines for body corporate offenders will also drastically increase, Level 4 first time offences will increase from $500,000 to more than $2.7 .

Level 1 penalties will increase from $50,000 to $456,000.

While legislation is pending, the announcement by the Government appears to focus its increase on penalties in so far as those penalties apply to business.

The WA government aligning the fines with those applying in other jurisdictions appears to be occurring in isolation. Many of the under changes which have been effected under the harmonised laws, including those promoting safety as a shared responsibility, are not included in this tranche of changes.