The Morrison Government is likely to have the deciding vote at a meeting of state and federal WHS ministers which will consider making changes to national WHS Laws designed to prevent sexual harassment, install national penalties for industrial manslaughter and improve rights for workplace health and safety representatives.
All Ministers responsible for Health and Safety, including the Federal Attorney General, are due to decide at an upcoming meeting whether or not to adopt the changes.
Six out of nine of those governments need to support a change for it to be adopted. The ACTU understands that the Morrison Government may have the casting vote.
The meeting was due to take place on 15 April but has been postponed until after the Tasmanian state election on 1 May. The ACTU is calling for the meeting to take place as soon as possible after that date, given the urgency of these issues, and that these recommendations are over two years old.
The outgoing Attorney General Christian Porter made it clear in parliament that he was open to supporting national Industrial Manslaughter laws. The ACTU has written to Michaelia Cash to affirm that she is intending to vote to make workplaces safer, especially for women.
