The New South Wales Minerals Council said that the health and safety of miners could be in jeopardy without harmonized Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulations. The chief executive of the NSW Minerals Council, Nikki Williams made the statement at the largest OHS conference which hosted over 500 people.
As per the new national Work Health and Safety Act each state in Australia is to develop its own OHS regulations, but Nikki Williams said that the approach does not meet the aims of the federal government to have harmonized safety regulations in the mining industry.
Dr Williams added that it was a land-mark year for health and safety reform, when the former draconian and archaic NSW OHS laws have been replaced by laws worthy of a 21st Century society. She said that the New South Wales state government was to be congratulated for the improvements it had made in regulations.
However she felt that there was more to be done to ensure that NSW kept up with other states. Dr Williams added that these changes should eliminate the tangled web of red tape for companies working across State borders that have been wrestling with up to eight different compliance regimes.
She was speaking at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Pokolbin where the three day conference is being organized this year. The theme of the conference is No Room for Error: Risk and Response. Other keynote speakers included St George Illawarra Dragons coach Wayne Bennett, Qantas pilot Richard de Crespigny and gender expert Dr Dean Laplonge.