From the Desk of the Executive Director

The Gillard government's attempts to harmonise Australia's work safety laws continues to crash around them. Even in South Australia, where the ALP holds government the failure is complete.

In late October, the South Australian parliament passed new OHS laws allegedly based around Gillard's harmonised model. But amendments made to the SA Labor government bill has resulted in a vastly different piece of legislation. It needs to be different. I last discussed the collapse of the harmonised OHS process late last year (The business of OHS disharmony) a process which has continued in gridlock since then.  More...

Some years ago if you asked small business operators what was the most difficult government regulation, the probable answer would have been tax administration. Today the answer would more likely be workers' compensation.

This view was apparently in evidence to the New South Wales Small Business Commissioner, Yasmin King, in her 'listening tour' of small business she conducted shortly after her appointment early this year.  More...

There's no doubt there's a significant battle occurring over national harmonisation of occupational health and safety laws. I've written extensively over why the laws are badly flawed, almost dangerous. But now the Scouting Association of New South Wales has blown the lid on the laws in a memo they've just released to their volunteer leaders. More...

We can now say that the Gillard government's attempt to harmonise Australia's occupational health and safety laws appears destined for failure. The latest setback for Gillard is Queensland, the only state that has passed the model OHS laws in full. More...

The Gillard government's attempt to harmonise the nation's work safety laws is, on current evidence, suffering a slow death.

Originally hailed as one of Julia Gillard's great negotiating triumphs, the legislation is falling over because of fundamental and even dangerous flaws in its core design. More...

I have to admit to being wrong. In 2009, I declared that the battle over work safety laws was over and that the 'white hats' had won (The OHS battle is won, May 20, 2009).

Now I need to advise that the battle continues, but this time for different reasons. It's to do with the attempt to harmonise Australia's OHS laws. This directly affects every business, manager and worker in Australia. More...

The full ramifications of yesterday's news on the 'Kirk' High Court decision --- which, as Robert Gottliebsen reported yesterday, effectively knocks over New South Wales' OHS laws --- should not be underestimated.  More...

Work safety laws have been a major policy and political battle ground for a long time. That battle finally appears to be over. Late on Monday the state and federal workplace relations ministers released the details of an agreement to harmonise occupational health and safety laws across the country. More...