Address to the 13th Occupational Health and Safety Leaders Australia Summit

** Acknowledgements omitted **

Well thank you very much for the opportunity to come and have a chat with you today about an issue that I know is really important to you, being workplace health and safety professionals.

But it’s also, of course, a really big issue for any Australian in any workplace.

I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land that we’re gathering on today and pay respects to Elders’ past, present and emerging.

And I want to welcome all of you who’ve travelled here to the Gold Coast. My electorate office is actually on the Gold Coast. I am a Queenslander – as you may be able to tell from the maroon tie.

We always love having people come to the Gold Coast for conferences and events, particularly at the moment because you would have seen in the last couple of weeks the Gold Coast took a bit of a battering from Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

And I know that our tourism industry here really welcomes these sorts of events to have people continue coming through.

So I hope you’ve had a great time and a really informative time over the course of this conference.

As I say – and you all know because you work in this space every single day – workplace health and safety is something that affects most Australians, whether they know it or not, each and every day.

Good workplace health and safety practice is a crucial part of every workplace environment.

Having a safe workplace is a basic right for all workers.

Safe workplaces reduce the risk of injury, illness and fatalities.

They influence our enjoyment of the work that we do and our lives more generally.

And they, of course, ensure that everyone goes home safely at the end of the day, which matters not just to workers themselves but to their work mates, their families, their friends and their communities.

But, of course, good workplace health and safety is also good business practice.

Getting WHS right can deliver greater productivity, less staff turnover and lower absenteeism rates.

Managing workplace health and safety risks doesn’t need to be costly or complicated, and it can assist businesses to operate more efficiently and more productively.

And if workers know that their leaders in an organisation place high importance on workplace health and safety, it becomes an ingrained part of everyday work. And that means that workers are more likely to follow safety procedures and raise safety issues, making health and safety a part of workplace culture.

More broadly, as you would all understand, good workplace health and safety is also good economics.

You may have seen the 2022 study that was commissioned by Safe Work Australia in which Deloitte Access Economics found that avoiding work-related injuries and illnesses would grow Australia’s economy by $28.6 billion every year, a 1.6 per cent increase annually to our nation’s GDP.

Not to mention the savings in health expenditure, lost workdays and employer overheads among other things.

So whoever we are, we all have an interest in improving workplace health and safety standards.

There’s no question that Australia is a world leader in this space.

Our current work-related injury rate of 3.5 percent, measured by the proportion of people who experience a work-related injury or illness in the previous 12 months, our rate nationally is roughly one-third the global rate of 12.1 percent.

But despite that, we can’t rest on our laurels. Australia still has 139,000 serious workers compensation claims that were lodged in 2022-23.

Claims for workplace-related mental health illnesses continue to increase.

And preliminary numbers show that 168 Australians were killed at work in 2024 with the vast majority in the transport, postal and warehousing, agriculture, forestry and fisheries and construction industries.

Now, that figure is down from the average annual workplace deaths of 191 over the last five years. But already this year, the preliminary numbers tell us that 18 Australians have already been killed at work, and we’re only halfway through March.

Every one of those people has a family, has friends, has work colleagues who will grieve their loss, and we all owe it to them to do better.

I know that everyone in this room wants to do better. You are leaders in your workplace when it comes to health and safety.

Being able to demonstrate these efforts is important for the wellbeing of employees and your business. But increasingly customers and clients expect companies to prioritise safe work practices as a part of doing business.

Of course, we always want to see employers doing more than the legislated minimum, and I know you’ve all got stories to share about things that you’re doing to make your workplaces better and safer. And I hope you’ve had an opportunity to share those stories over the last couple of days.

I can tell you that the Albanese Government also wants to do better when it comes to workplace health and safety.

As the national government we’ve got multiple roles in this space. We’re obviously a major employer ourselves, with workplace health and safety obligations to our own employees. We’re a regulator, an insurer, and we support the work happening in companies right across Australia by providing a national guide and ensuring minimum standards. And in each of these areas as a government we are trying to lift the standard.

Since our Government was elected in 2022, we’ve introduced some important policies in the workplace health and safety space.

Some of the higher-profile changes, which I’ll elaborate on shortly, include the banning of engineered stone, the industrial manslaughter offence, and a significant increase to penalties for breaches of commonwealth workplace health and safety laws.

We’ve also introduced mental health programs and pilots, including in specific industries, like the fishing and seafood industry, to address high rates of suicide and mental health needs within certain sectors. We’ve delivered funding for initiatives led by peak employer groups and unions to improve workplace health and safety, including to level the playing field for women in male-dominated industries.

We continue to support Safe Work Australia as an important resource for information and advice.

And as I mentioned before, these all aim to give workplace health and safety leaders like yourselves a nationally consistent guide when it comes to these important issues.

And, of course, I recognise that other levels of government, particularly States and Territories, also have an important role in this space.

And that’s why we’ve worked cooperatively with State and Territory governments, the ACTU and peak employer groups to release a new 10-year Australian work health and safety strategy in 2023 with clear targets to reduce workplace fatalities, serious workers compensation claims, work-related respiratory diseases, among other actions.

But, of course, as the federal minister, I might now just take you through some of the more significant changes that we’ve made at the federal level over the last couple of years.

And the first concerns the new industrial manslaughter offence and increases to penalties.

With a number of state governments having already introduced industrial manslaughter offences, we committed to fix the gap at the national level.

As I mentioned, last year 168 Australians were killed at work. That’s 168 too many, and in some cases, we need to acknowledge that those deaths were due to the gross negligence or recklessness of the person having a duty to keep them safe.

Through our Fair Work legislation amendment Closing Loopholes laws the Albanese Government introduced a new industrial manslaughter offence and significantly increased penalties for breaches of commonwealth workplace health and safety laws.

The new industrial manslaughter offence applies higher penalties to the most egregious breaches of workplace health and safety duties. Those which cause death due to a duty holder’s gross negligence or recklessness.

I know there have been some who tried to argue that industrial manslaughter reaches far too far in the workplace. We are talking about the most egregious duties being breached, and I think that needs firm action.

The industrial manslaughter offence came into effect on the 1st of July 2024, and attracts penalties of $18 million for a body corporate and up to 25 years’ imprisonment for an individual - an individual whose gross negligence or recklessness led to the death of someone else in a workplace.

And those sorts of fines and penalties and prison sentences are consistent with comparable manslaughter offences outside the workplace in the Commonwealth’s Criminal Code.

These changes we think ensure that penalties are a real deterrent rather than just another cost of doing business.

We’ve also made changes to incident notifications, with Commonwealth, State and Territory workplace health and safety Ministers agreeing to changes to improve notification requirements under the model workplace health and safety laws.

The proposed changes will address key gaps in the current notification requirements and expand the framework to capture a broader range of injuries, illnesses, hazards and harms.

For example, the changes will better capture, among other things, workplace violence.

This includes sexual assault, suicide, attempted suicide, psychosocial hazards including bullying and harassment, and hazardous exposures to airborne chemicals that can cause long latency diseases.

Safe Work Australia is finalising amendments to the model workplace health and safety laws to enable jurisdictions to implement these new arrangements under their own workplace health and safety laws. So we’ll have more to say about that soon as that work rolls forward.

As I mentioned earlier, and you’d be seeing in your own workplaces, we are unfortunately seeing a rise in work-related mental health illness.

Addressing this has been an increasing focus of our Government and our State and Territory counterparts.

In 2022 the model workplace health and safety laws were amended to clarify the existing obligations, to identify and manage psychosocial hazards as well as physical hazards in the workplace.

In April 2023 the amendments to the model WHS laws were adopted in the Commonwealth’s own laws.

And under these laws businesses now have a duty to ensure that all persons in the workplace, including workers, are not exposed to risks to their psychological or physical health and safety as far as is reasonable practicable.

This duty extends to managing physical and psychosocial hazards such as bullying, harassment, including sexual harassment, violence and aggression.

We’ve also been providing more guidance to businesses on how to meet their obligations to manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

In November last year the Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards at work, a Commonwealth Code, came into effect under the commonwealth workplace health and safety laws to provide that guidance to businesses.

In addition, this month the Commonwealth Sexual Harassment Code commenced to support employers to protect workers against workplace sexual harassment.

The Sexual Harassment Code gives effect in the Commonwealth jurisdiction to Recommendation 35 of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work report.

And it complements the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act, which requires employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate certain forms of unlawful sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, as far as possible.

The Code provides support and guidance to business leaders, recognising the important role you play in making safety a core part of doing business, and influencing the culture of your business.

Of course, as a government, we’ve also taken action on newly emerging conditions such as silicosis, a lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust.

For years now, we’ve seen harrowing stories of workers as young as 30 suffering and dying from this insidious disease, especially following the use of engineered stone benchtops, slabs and panels.

Our Government has stepped up on this, introducing a ban on the importation of engineered stone products from the 1st of January this year to protect the future health and safety of these workers.

And this follows the world’s first domestic ban on the use, supply and manufacture of engineered stone products in Australia that started on the 1st of July last year.

Unfortunately, we will continue to see cases of silicosis, due to the past use of these products. But we hope that the actions we’ve taken, along with you in the workplace, will curtail such cases in the future.

As you can see, the Albanese Government has done a lot in the workplace health and safety space in just one term in office. And should we be fortunate enough to earn a second term, we’ll continue our work to encourage strong workplace health and safety in all Australian workplaces.

We’ll conclude a review of the Comcare scheme and modernise the legislation that underpins it, ensuring it is fit for purpose and provides effective support for people who are injured at work.

And despite this scheme covering 470,000 people, the Act governing it hadn’t been reviewed since 2012, and it hasn’t been significantly reformed since it was launched nearly 40 years ago.

The review of Comcare is now underway and is considering all expects of the scheme, including governance, usability entitlements, and provide recommendations to modernise and future-proof the scheme and improve outcomes for injured workers.

An independent panel has been busily conducting this review, and their final report is due to the government in June.

And if you haven’t had an opportunity to do so, I really encourage you to engage with this review so we get the best outcome for all concerned.

Before wrapping up, I do want to address one example of appalling workplace health and safety that we’ve seen reported on again this week.

I’m talking about the new revelations of shocking behaviour within the CFMEU Construction Division and the wider construction industry, including unacceptable gender-based violence and harassment.

Our Government unequivocally condemns this type of behaviour in any workplace, and we’re working extremely hard to stamp it out.

You may have seen that I’ve referred the allegations of criminal conduct to police for investigation, along with referrals to a number of other workplace health and safety regulators.

I’ve requested the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate the non-criminal allegations that emerged, of sexual harassment and victimisation of women in the construction industry.

And I’ve also invited the Ombudsman to advise me following her investigations of whether she considers it would be useful to undertake a broader examination of the violence and harassment issues facing women in the construction sector.

Now, some have said this week that the revelations we’ve seen in the media indicate that the Government’s appointment of an administrator to the CFMEU isn’t working.

I say the opposite.

In just a few months the Administrator we appointed to the union has sacked dozens of CFMEU officials, organisers and delegates for their unacceptable conduct.

And it’s worth remembering that the revelations we’ve been seeing in the media, along with police raids on those involved, are largely due to the investigations undertaken by the administrator and his team.

It's going to take time to fully remove the cancer that embedded itself in this organisation, and within the broader construction industry.

And we’ll see more revelations as that work continues.

But the fact that we are learning what has been going on, and are taking action to deal with it, I think is a sign of progress not failure.

And just as the Administrator is taking action within the CFMEU, we need to see similar efforts from others in the construction industry.

For every union official who has been involved in corrupt or criminal behaviour, we’ve seen an employer, a labour hire firm operator or someone else in the industry involved too.

Now, as a government we’re committed to making all workplaces safe and welcoming for all people, in particular women in construction, and we need to see a similar commitment from everyone in the industry.

We’ve been working very collaboratively with unions and employer groups in this industry to try to change the culture, but there’s a lot of work to be done, as any of you who work in the industry know.

And we do need to see also action beyond the workplace relations system to drive cultural change.

It’s why as a government we’ve taken a range of other actions to eliminate sexual harassment and other form of gender-based violence at work.

And I pay tribute in particular to the work of my colleagues Katy Gallagher, the Minister for Finance and Women, and the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, for their work to implement the Respect@Work report and to fund a variety of initiatives to make workplaces safer, more respectful and more equitable for women, particularly those working in traditionally male‑dominated industries.

So in conclusion, as I said at the outset – and you all know; I know I’m preaching to the converted here – workplace health and safety is really important.

It’s important for workers, it’s important for their families, it’s important for businesses, and it’s important for our economy as a whole.

We all have a role to play in continuing to lift the standard of workplace health and safety – governments state and federal, workers, unions, businesses. Everyone at all levels has a role to play here.

And as you can see from what I’ve taken you through, as a federal government we’re strengthening our laws, we’re investing in improvements, and we’re providing guidance to businesses and others who need that information.

I appreciate on behalf of the Government the efforts that you make in your workplaces each and every day to keep our friends and our family members safe.

I think we all are determined to try to bring down that number of Australian workers who die each year at work or contract illnesses that can really affect the quality of their life going forward.

So, again, I appreciate the efforts that you’re undertaking.

I hope the conference has been useful in shaping your thinking.

And I look forward to working with you on these issues into the future.

Thanks very much.