Hansard debates

                         EQUIPMENT (PUBLIC SAFETY) BILL
                                 Second reading

  Mr PESCOTT (Minister for Industry Services) -- I move:
  That this bill be now read a second time.
A brief  history of the lead-up to this bill is necessary to put the legislation
in context. When the  Occupational Health and Safety Act was drafted there was a
clear intention that the act would replace all the equipment  safety legislation
in  place at the time  -- that is, the Occupational  Health and Safety Act would
take the place of the Lifts and Cranes Act, Boilers and Pressure Vessels Act and
Scaffolding Act. Powers to  revoke those acts were  included in the Occupational
Health and Safety Act.

Over time it has been found that the Occupational Health and Safety Act does not
provide for public  safety as comprehensively  as does the earlier  legislation.
The Occupational  Health  and Safety Act,  by  definition, is an  act  primarily
concerned  with  workplaces and  has  only one provision  that  refers to safety
requirements for people other than employees.  That is section 22,  which refers
to an employer's obligations to take  care for  the safety of non-employees as a
result of the  activities of the  employer's  undertaking. The  older  equipment
safety  legislation  on the  other  hand, places requirements  on proprietors of
equipment irrespective of the location of the equipment; it is  of no concern to
that legislation  whether the  equipment is  used in  a factory or  at a  school
working bee.
The government wants to rationalise the number of pieces of legislation covering
equipment safety and ensure that the legislation is appropriate to  the need for
statutory control.

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The earlier equipment  safety legislation does  not allow for that.  These acts,
for the most part, are drafted in  the older, prescriptive, inflexible  language
which does not suit a modern implementation and enforcement approach.
Because  the Occupational Health  and Safety Act made  allowance for 'staged' or
progressive repeal of the older legislation much  time and effort has been spent
on various  ways in which that legislation could be 'eased' out of operation. In
the final analysis it was concluded that a clean break had to be made to avoid a
host of problems that could arise from having parts of legislation being used to
address some  problems and the Occupational  Health and Safety Act  dealing with
the remainder. In addition, there was the glaring contrast in penalty levels for
non-compliance between the old equipment safety legislation and the Occupational
Health and Safety Act.

In  1991 Parliament  partially  dealt  with a  bill,  also called the  Equipment
(Public Safety) Bill. The current  Equipment (Public Safety) Bill is essentially
the  same  as  its  1991  predecessor  with  one  significant  difference.  That
difference is that there is no provision for the continuation of the scaffolding
permit system in the bill before the house.
The 1991 bill contained some consequential amendments to the Occupational Health
and Safety  Act  which gave municipalities  the  power to  appoint  occupational
health  and  safety inspectors  with  limited power to  regulate the scaffolding
permit system  within  their  municipality.  It is generally recognised however,
that  the permit system  is anachronistic and  inefficient  and consequently the
decision has been made to abolish the scaffolding system in Victoria. That means
the  consequential amendments to the  Occupational Health and  Safety Act are no
longer needed.

The bill's primary function is to provide a clear, modern statutory control over
the use of potentially  dangerous  equipment used in the public domain. In doing
that an opportunity arises to rationalise the regulatory controls over equipment
generally and so produce a better environment for business in Victoria.
I commend the bill to the house.
Debate adjourned on motion of Mr MICALLEF (Springvale).
Debate adjourned until Thursday, 14 April.