Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The tabling of that document would of course be most helpful, but it does not overcome the issue that it is basically at the discretion of the regulator to determine whether or not in a particular circumstance they believe that the business concerned should be complying with a particular provision of a code. That is where the concern is from the coalition perspective: in relation to the uncertainty with this regime. They will now have to rely somehow on the good grace and offices of the regulator to ensure that they are not prosecuted, keeping in mind that the prosecution under this legislation will be for a criminal offence, so we are talking about serious matters here. It is all very nice to say that there is a transitional period, but it is only about giving advice on compliance and seeking voluntary compliance. If a case is brought in any event, what impact may that have, if any, in relation to the court's determination?

It will be interesting to know what arrangements have been made by Safe Work Australia in relation to these new codes of practice to educate all the businesses that might be impacted. One wonders whether or not they have been provided with the code of practice and told that this is what is going to apply, and how widely distributed this document, the policy for transitioning to new requirements in approved codes of practice on 1 January 2012, has been to all the small businesses that might be impacted. If we could be advised of the distribution of this policy document, that would be most helpful.