The newly
proposed Work Health and Safety Amendment
Bill 2018, will have significant changes to NSW.
Some of these
changes include:
· empowering
safety inspectors to record interviews during inspections without the
consent of the interviewee; and
· exemption
of law enforcement officers from prosecution if they breach WHS duties whilst
dealing with an armed offender.
Recording Interviews without consent
The recording
of the interview may occur without the consent of the interviewee, however, it
must be made aware to the interviewee that the interview is being recorded. This
will be a significant amendment in NSW.
Exemption from prosecution for law
enforcement officers
Under the
proposed bill, law enforcement officers along with other officers in the chain
of command, will be exempted from prosecution for breaching WHS duties, when
responding and dealing with an incident concerning armed offenders.
NSW Parliament
has stated that it is unreasonable to expect officers dealing with armed
offenders to be at risk of prosecution due to their prioritisation of public
safety over their WHS duties.
SafeWork NSW extra-territorial powers
The proposed
changes will also provide SafeWork NSW with the power to obtain information
from company branches in other states and territories for NSW investigations.
This change is
proposed to reduce the inefficiencies caused by the need to subpoena
information located interstate.
