Senator Eric Abetz

Under the cover of Christmas, the new Codes of Practice for harmonized Occupational Health and Safety laws were registered just a week out from becoming the law of the land.

Employers and employees will have to add these Codes of Practice to the 600 pages of regulations that were made two weeks ago to their Christmas reading pile.

“People around Australia will return to work in 2012 not knowing where they stand when it comes to OH&S,” Senator Abetz said today.

“It’s taken big government, big unions and big business years to pull all of this together and now small business, independent contractors and individual workers need to get across the detail in just 1 week.”

“Julia Gillard’s ‘proudest achievement’ fell to pieces because Labor was not prepared to delay the timeframe and finish the job. Instead, we’ve got half-harmonised laws and it seems everyone but Federal Labor is to blame.”

“If Bill Shorten genuinely wants to put the national interest ahead of the cheap politics, he would delay implementation by one year to ensure everyone signs up and workers and their employers are able to understand the new rules.”

“Everyone, including the Coalition, supports harmonization but it should not be a rush job so Ms Gillard can put the trophy on her mantelpiece.”

“Many working Australians, independent contractors and small business people will feel cheated because they weren’t genuinely given a chance to understand the new laws.”

“For the sake of all involved, I hope common sense prevails,” Senator Abetz concluded.