(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Australia’s Labor Government to jail corporate executives for up to 25 years when workers killed [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-02 After eight years of the former right-wing Coalition Government allowing Australian workers to be killed at an average rate of almost 200 per year, incoming Labor Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke has said enough is enough. Or, to quote him directly, “So far this year, 91 workers have been fatally injured in the workplace. That’s 91 too many. People go to work to give themselves a life. That work should never take away a life.” Criminalising workplace negligence The Albanese Government has announced it will criminalise industrial manslaughter, which will be defined as a workplace death resulting from negligence or recklessness. Under the proposed legislation, fines for corporations rise from $3 million to $15 million, while business managers will face a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment. The new laws prohibit using insurance to cover financial penalties incurred for workplace safety breaches, ensuring the fines act as an effective deterrent rather than allowing worker deaths to continue as just another operational cost. Background of Coalition criminal neglect When the Rudd Labor Government took over from the hapless Howard administration at the end of 2007, the average workplace fatalities for the previous four years had been a disturbing 284. Workers killed on the job hit a high since records have been kept of 310 in 2007. That’s according to data published by Safe Work Australia. Incoming Labor Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard slashed that appalling death rate before becoming prime minister in 2010 and handing the portfolio to Chris Evans who reduced fatalities even further. See grey chart, below. In Labor’s last year, 2013, total deaths had tumbled to 201, the lowest since Safe Work Australia first published the annual tally in 2003. Tragically for Australia’s workers, the Coalition returned to office in 2013 and the trajectory plateaued. The incoming conservative Government halted effective efforts to make workplaces safer, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott famously declaring that “a more productive economy is a less-regulated one” and “excessive regulation creates greater costs than benefits and discourages investment and the willingness to have-a-go”. So the bosses had a go, and by 2015, workers killed jumped to 212. Construction critical The industry with the worst performance under the Coalition was the construction sector, as IA has reported regularly since 2015. This is no surprise given Tony Abbott’s enthusiastic backing for a gung-ho construction sector: "I absolutely hope that in four or five years’ time people will say ‘Yes, that Tony Abbott, he did all sorts of things but, by God, he was an infrastructure Prime Minister. He was a builder’.” If fact, Abbott built very little before he was sacked by his own team. But the construction industry took to heart his assurances that safety regulations were no longer a priority, and relaxed their vigilance. Construction workers killed soared immediately – from 13.5 per $100 billion of construction activity to 23.0 in Abbott’s first year. This peaked in 2020 at 39.5, almost three times higher than Labor’s final level. See yellow and blue chart, below. Leadership vital Once again, the wisdom of having a specialist in charge is being proven. Current Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke took on the workplace portfolio in Opposition after the 2019 election. He has now managed this with enthusiasm for four years and four months and shows no desire to move on. The Coalition in contrast had five industrial relations ministers over its eight years and eight months. They served an average of one year and nine months. None of them showed any competence, as the dismal outcomes confirm. Whether the latest laws make a difference we shall see in due course. Minister Burke certainly seems focussed. We can safely say that. * This is an edited version of an article published earlier today in Independent Australia, available in full for free here: independentaustralia.net/... [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/2/2196827/-Australia-s-Labor-Government-to-jail-corporate-executives-for-up-to-25-years-when-workers-killed Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/