Senator Eric Abetz

Small and medium businesses have had a rude shock today to learn that the Federal Government has published 601 pages of regulation to go with the harmonised work health and safety laws.

The harmonised laws come into effect on 1 January 2012. Julia Gillard somehow expects workers and their bosses in States with the ‘harmonised’ laws to be fully compliant with all of the regulations, and they have just 16 days to do so.

“With just 16 days until these laws come into effect, how can you possibly expect every single employer and employee who will have to work under these regulations to get across the detail?” Senator Abetz said today.

“You simply cannot expect people, especially small and medium sized businesses, to assimilate and completely understand that kind of detail in just 16 days.”

“It’s taken big Government, big unions and big business years to develop them and this is exactly why I have been calling for a 12 month delay to ensure that business has an appropriate period of time to understand the legislation.”

“Only two States have signed up to the harmonised laws, there are Codes of Practice still out for consultation and so the 1 January start date is simply unworkable.”

“If Mr Shorten were serious about harmonisation, he would delay the full implementation by one year,” Senator Abetz concluded.