WORKSAFE Victoria director Stan Krpan says he will make some pointed suggestions and report on Victoria’s progress towards the National OHS Strategy’s 2012 targets during his presentation at the Safety in Action Conference on 22 April 2010.
"The harmonisation of Australia's OHS laws has given health and safety a place in the sun. How we take advantage of that is a question safety professionals need to answer,” Kpran said.
"It's time to convert the energy from the controversy of the harmonisation debate into making better safety outcomes.”
Kpran claims many of his presentation’s audience will be members of peak OHS professional body, the Safety Institute of Australia, which is presenting the Conference. He says they should be confident Australians are now putting a higher value on workplace safety.
The director attributes the growing awareness of workplace safety to WorkSafe Victoria's social marketing and repositioning of inspectors' roles. While workplace safety is yet to garner the same media attention as car crashes, Mr Krpan says WorkSafe Victoria's advertising campaigns have been effective.
"Workplace safety incidents are generally less public and less graphic than the aftermath of a car crash and, at the same time, the workplace toll is about one-tenth of the road toll, so media coverage is more muted."
Although harmonisation of Australia’s workplace safety laws revealed deep passions in the community, Krpan is optimistic about the timetable for reform.
"The regulations still have some basis for commonality, particularly where there are national standards in place," he said.
"Safe Work Australia's tripartite structure will make all-concerned aware of the differences where they exist."
The Safety Institute of Australia will hold the Safety in Action Conference from April 20 to 22 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
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