About this Submission

On 25 October 2022, the NSW Government announced the appointment of retired Supreme Court judge The Hon. Robert McDougall KC to carry out a review of SafeWork NSW.

In its submission, Business NSW recommended that SafeWork NSW:

• Consult with industry to identify ways in which it could adopt a more proactive regulatory approach that focusses on effectively managing the risk of harm rather than the outcome of an incident,
• Consider utilising alternative marketing channels to better suit their intended target market, and
• When considering measures to “ensure that workers and their representatives and the families of injured and deceased workers have a genuine voice in the complaints, investigation and enforcement process”, that they include safeguards to ensure that the risk-based regulatory approach of WHS laws are not subsumed by an outcomes-based approach, which is more appropriate and relevant to NSW’s common law criminal jurisdiction.