Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has spoken publicly about the removal of the CEO and Chair of WorkSafe Victoria describing them as liars and incompetent. As Jon Faine pointed out in the radio interview, the Premier has established a high level of accountability. Hopefully this results in an increased diligence on OHS matters by government departments and authorities.
The Industrial Relations Minister in the Andrews Government, Robin Scott, was a regular critic of WorkSafe’s operations and decisions while in Opposition and it is no surprise that he went hard on the CEO, Denise Cosgrove, at least.
This has come about in the early stages of the Mackenzie Review into WorkSafe Victoria. Given that the review covers Cosgrove’s time in the position, her departure introduces a complication. It provides an opportunity to scapegoat Cosgrove for WorkSafe’s indecision and supposed waywardness but no CEO works in isolation and Mackenzie is unlikely to work in this way. Of course, the Victorian Government could use the scapegoat option but the review is far from over.
The departure of the Chair, David Krasnostein, is perhaps more curious as his public profile has been non-existent.
The Government wants to restore its confidence in WorkSafe Victoria and clearly its actions in such a short term in office – unbranding back to WorkSafe, the Mackenzie Review and the departure of two executives – indicate this is a priority. But these actions must also restore the public’s confidence in the safety regulator. The public confidence is less fragile than the government’s and WorkSafe still retains a high public regard because of the services it provides even though it has been shaken by WorkSafe’s lower profile, particularly, during Cosgrove’s time.
The Government needs to provide sufficient resources to WorkSafe for it increase its prosecutorial duties. This used to be a badge of honour for WorkSafe with the Executive Director reinforcing the deterrence effect of a successful prosecution by speaking in front of the Court buildings after success.
The Government also needs to resource the media team in WorkSafe back to its prior levels. The lack of media activity by WorkSafe has been poor but this is to be expected when the media team was culled back to around two people and without providing long term conracts.
The visibility of any govenment regulator is very important for its own purposes but also for those industries and organisations that feed off that visibility. The OHS regulator’s role is important but when taken within the context of the OHS sector on a State and National level, it is vital. Victoria is in a period when the whole OHS sector needs a shake up in order to regain the national prominence it once had.
