By Ken Phillips, Institute of Public Affairs (Austraria), October 2006

The failure to prosecute either the Department of Minerals Resources or the company that employed three of the miners after the 1996 Gretley Mine disaster, raises serious questions about the integrity of the occupational health and safety system in New South Wales and the use of the powers of criminal prosecution under the system.

The design of NSW OHS legislation is deeply flawed. It creates dangerous work cultures in NSW because it is based on a presumption of guilt for some parties and minimal application of liability for others.

Asiaing Links:

The Politics of a Tragedy Official Website

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About the Author:

Ken Phillips is the director of the Work Reform Unit of the Institute of Public Affairs.

He is a lobbyist who specializes in labour issues and is widely recognized in particular, as an authority on independent contractor issues concerning definitions, tax, occupational health and safety, discrimination and equal opportunity and management.

He consults to the private and government sectors looking at reform systems with emphasis on management structures and approaches. In this context he promotes concepts of markets in the firm.

Always looking at labour issues from different angles Ken is known for his incisive articles in the Australian Financial Review and other newspapers, journals and magazines. He is currently preparing a book, Independence and the Death of Employment.

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