MEDIA RELEASE

 

NICK XENOPHON M.L.C.

INDEPENDENT NO POKIES MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

18 October 2004

 

major work safety conference told of government’s ‘double standard’ in its ‘law and order’ campaign:

ROGUE EMPLOYERS TO BE TARGETED WITH INDUSTRIAL MANSLAUGHTER LAWS

 

The directors and senior officers of companies responsible for the death of employees in the workplace, would face up to 20 years jail under proposed industrial manslaughter laws to be introduced into State Parliament later this year.

The legislation, to be introduced by No Pokies MLC Nick Xenophon, is modelled on legislation passed in November 2003 by the ACT Government. He will release a consultative draft when speaking at the ‘Simply Safety’ conference at Old Adelaide Gaol, which will be attended by 150 senior Occupational Health and Safety managers for some of the State’s biggest employers.

It is almost impossible to prosecute a company or its senior officers under current manslaughter laws because legal precedents don’t allow for a company’s ‘corporate culture’ or the combined conduct of a number of senior officers to be taken into account.

Mr. Xenophon said:

“In 2002, 24 South Australians died as a result of work accidents - and up to 120 more died painful lingering deaths because of industrial diseases like mesothelioma and asbestosis.  Current penalties for workplace deaths and serious injury and are woefully inadequate”.

“If the Rann Government is serious about its ‘law and order’ campaign it needs to get tough in the workplace too”.

“Decent employers who do the right thing by their workers would have nothing to fear with this legislation – it’s targeted at those rogue employers who have a contemptuous disregard for the safety of their workforce”.

“In fact, responsible employers should welcome industrial manslaughter laws - which will mean safer workplaces, fewer deaths and injuries, and ultimately lower worker’s compensation premiums”.

Mr. Xenophon pointed to the many thousands of deaths in Australia due to asbestos exposure (and up to 45 000 more deaths expected in the next 20 years). 

“The evidence is clear – that some senior company officers and some directors of asbestos manufacturers knew that asbestos could kill those exposed to it, but they made a commercial decision to keep making and selling this deadly stuff.”

“If industrial manslaughter laws were in place decades earlier, the threat of jail for asbestos manufacturers could well have changed their corporate behaviour and thousands of lives could have been saved”.

“Industrial manslaughter laws will mean that large corporations will no longer be able to write off a worker’s life as a business deduction”.

 

Written and authorised by Nick Xenophon, 653 Lower North East Road, Paradise, SA 5075