Edition 39, October 2006

Federal Safety Commissioner delivers first progress report

The Federal Safety Commission's inaugural progress report provides an insight into the building and construction industry's occupational health and safety performance and an overview of current and future initiatives.

The report identifies the development and implementation of the Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme as a key achievement.

The scheme was developed in response to the Cole Royal Commission that found the occupational health and safety performance in Australia's building and construction industry was unacceptable.

In direct response to the findings of the Royal Commission, the Australian Government has acted to use its influence as a major procurer of services in the industry to enhance occupational health and safety performance. The scheme requires anyone wanting to contract for building or construction work with the Australian Government to be accredited. Accreditation involves an assessment of contractors' occupational health and safety policies, systems and experiences.

The scheme is being implemented in two stages. The first stage applies to all Australian Government directly-funded building and construction contracts valued at over $6 million. Provisional accreditation commenced in March 2006 and full accreditation commenced in July 2006.

Federal Safety Commissioner Tom Fisher says that stage one of the accreditation scheme is already having a positive impact on occupational health and safety, and that adoption of accreditation by more companies will achieve even greater results.

Stage two will apply to all construction projects funded directly or indirectly by the Australian Government, subject to financial thresholds. The timeframes will be announced later this year.

The progress report highlights other initiatives, including:

  • release of Occupational Health and Safety Principles and guidance material to help industry stakeholders to develop a culture of safety that exceeds the minimum legislative requirements. This will also help to create national consistency in occupational health and safety practices
  • commissioning of a report to identify international occupational health and safety best practice. This will enable the replication of proven initiatives and avoidance of ineffective initiatives
  • a number of initiatives to promote awareness of the benefits of safe design in eliminating or minimising risk
  • a national conference planned for March/April 2007 to facilitate industry discussion on continuous improvement in occupational health and safety.

The complete progress report is available on the Federal Safety Commission website at www.fsc.gov.au  (Select 'Resources and publications' > 'Publications' > 'Federal Safety Commissioner's 2005-2006 Progress Report'.)

This page was generated on 26 August, 2009