Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

They are not told that in the document because whether the 12 months applies or not is going to depend on whether there are new or significantly different duties relevant to any particular workplace. The more critical point though is the one I have referred to at the commencement—I cannot at the moment point you to exactly where in the paper I told you it was—and perhaps a more common language description of that might assist small business. It is the provision in the last two paragraphs that says: 'To help duty holders'—again, language that is not necessarily helpful for a small business—'to transition to any new safety practices, processes and control measures recommended in approved codes of practice, inspectors will use guidance provided in the codes to assist duty holder to achieve compliance.' The point is that if there are significant differences in the codes or in the duties that are required, it is incumbent upon the inspectors to use the guidance provided in the codes to help small businesses to achieve compliance rather than to prosecute those small businesses.