New industrial manslaughter laws in ACT

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly has passed legislation to establish industrial manslaughter as an offence under the ACT Work Health and Safety laws.

Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Mick Gentleman said “the new offence will provide a strong deterrent against unsafe work practices.”

The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) CEO Dallas Booth said, “Brokers need to explain the changes to their clients and ensure that their cover remains suitable. This will be increasingly important as there have been two prosecutions for industrial manslaughter offences in other states.”

Gentleman added, “Every workplace fatality is a preventable tragedy that devastates families, friends, co-workers and the wider community.”

“Everyone has the right to return home safely and employers have an important role to play in this. Workplace safety is a right that must be protected at all costs.”

“The new offence carries an imprisonment penalty of up to 20 years for individuals and $16,500,000 for corporations who cause the death of a worker through the continued disregard of safe work practices and breaches of work safety obligations. These penalties reflect the extreme serious of the offence.

“These laws will provide more avenues to address poor workplace safety practices and systemic non-compliance.”