New Work Health and Safety laws implemented in Western Australia - YouTube

Hello my name is Michelle Bolitho and  I'm a project manager working as part of  

the team implementing the new work health  and safety laws here in Western Australia.

Getting to this point has been a very long road  going back to 2008, when the various Australian  

states agreed to have harmonised work health  and safety legislation across the country. WA can  

now see the light at the end of the tunnel. This  presentation will provide a high level overview  

of the implementation process that the Department  of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety has put in  

place to ensure duty holders can prepare and are  well supported as the new work health and safety  

regime comes into effect in Western Australia.  After its approval by the WA Parliament, the  

work health and safety act was assented to by the  Governor in November last year. The new laws are  

focused on improving the safety of all workplaces  in WA and to drive down the number of incidents  

and fatalities. While the national harmonised or  model work health and safety laws were adopted  

they include a number of amendments to suit the  particular work environment in Western Australia.  

The new work health and safety laws will  ensure that more clarity is provided for modern  

employment relationships such as subcontractors  and casual employees, alongside the more  

traditional employer employee relationship. The  new laws also introduce a number of new aspects,  

including the term person conducting a business  undertaking, or PCBU, the offence of industrial  

manslaughter, the banning of insurance cover for  work health and safety penalties and enforceable  

undertakings as an alternative form penalty. All  of these new concepts are covered in a lot of  

detail in the support process and materials the  department will be running over coming months. 

The new Act is not industry specific but, after an extensive consultation process,  

it was decided that the Act will be supported  by three separate sets of industry regulations,  

which I will discuss shortly. It's important  to note that while the Act has passed, it 

has not yet come into full effect due to the  supporting regulations having to be developed .

The full suite of WHS laws will come into effect  in January 2022. As I mentioned above, three  

separate sets of regulations have been written to  support the WHS Act. The regulations set out the  

procedural and administrative requirements to give  effect to the act, for example in the licensing of  

specific activities and record-keeping obligations.  The regulations cover general workplaces,  

mining operations, and petroleum and geothermal  energy operations or as it's commonly called PAGEO.  

There are some areas of difference for mining  operations, mainly in the areas of approvals,  

notifications and statutory positions, and the risk  management approach in the mine safety management  

system has been retained. The safety case approach  has also been retained in the PAGEO sector.  

The Work Health and Safety regulations will become  operational as soon as possible, in order to meet  

the Government's commitment for the Work Health  and Safety laws to be in effect in January 2022.  

A comprehensive education and information strategy  has been developed given that this is the detail  

that duty holders need to understand to ensure  they are fully informed of their obligations  

and responsibilities. It's important to note  also that transitional arrangements are being  

put into place to provide sufficient time for  duty holders to adapt their safe systems of work  

to meet the new requirements. As previously  mentioned, DMIRS has implemented a comprehensive  

implementation strategy both internally, as  this is new territory for our own people,  

and externally for all workplaces in the  state. Support and information in multiple  

formats is available, and this material is  also being provided in different languages  

and in a culturally sensitive manner across  WA, including in regional and remote areas.  

The strategy is focused across the areas of  stakeholder liaison, people, information systems  

and business controls and I'll briefly touch on  each of these. In terms of stakeholder liaison,  

DMIRS has been working closely with a number  of bodies to ensure they have the information  

and support they require to support and educate  their constituents and to support workplaces  

through the necessary changes they may need  to make in how they conduct their business.  

The current tripartite bodies for workplace safety,  namely the Commission for Occupational Safety and  

Health and the Mining Industry Advisory Committee,  have been re-established under the new laws  

as the Work Health and Safety Commission and  the Mining and Petroleum Advisory Committee.  

The WA Government has also committed significant  grant funding to peak employer and employee  

bodies to provide education and to assist  with the transition to the new laws. There's  

been comprehensive training, staff consultation  and ongoing communications - our inspectors have  

to be properly informed and resourced to  implement and action the new requirements.  

A large amount of work is being done to ensure the  online business systems are configured to support  

the new Work Health and Safety laws. This includes  IT system upgrades to SRS and WISE to support new  

compliance and enforcement processes. New policies  and communication strategies have also been  

developed to ensure any new or additional  vocational or other training requirements  

for licenses under the new WHS laws are in place,  as well as other areas such as notifications,  

obtaining approvals, registration of  plant and any reporting obligations  

are facilitated by the technology. In terms of  business controls, the need to ensure consistent  

and transparent policies, processes and procedures  to support the implementation of the new WHS laws  

was recognised in the government structure  set up to manage this large project.  

A very senior level steering and governance  committee, chaired by the WorkSafe WA Commissioner,  

has overseen the implementation of the new laws  

and supported by six working groups has ensured  a comprehensive and coordinated approach.  

Processes and protocols to facilitate approvals  and reporting, as well as data transparency and  

the capacity to audit what actions have  occurred, have also been implemented. So  

to sum up, ensuring that external stakeholders  and duty holders aware of their obligations in  

the new regulatory environment, and that they have  access to information and guidance to support them  

to make informed decisions, has been a fundamental  principle throughout the process of implementing  

the new WHS regime in Western Australia. Remember,  there is still time until the laws, including the  

three different sets of regulations, come into  full effect in January 2022 and there is plenty  

of support and information available. A number  of transitional arrangements have also been  

put into place, so duty holders do have time to  ensure they are compliant with their obligations.

There are a number of other presentations  being done as part of Safe Work Month October  

that go into more detail on particular aspects  of the WHS laws. You might also like to subscribe  

to some of the other information sources that  DMIRS has developed. Thank you for listening today