NT Worksafe accused of being obstructive after high fees in Freedom of Information request

NT WORKSAFE has been labelled as obstructive and money-grabbing after the government organisation quoted more than $45,000 for it to reveal a list of incidents it investigated at the Inpex Bladin Point construction site

Aerial of Inpex's Ichthys LNG Project at Bladin Point. Picture: MICHAEL FRANCHI

NT WORKSAFE has been labelled as obstructive after the government organisation quoted more than $45,000 to reveal a list of incidents it investigated at the Inpex Bladin Point construction site.

The NT News was quoted the exorbitant fee following a Freedom of Information request in the weeks after Inpex worker Carl Delaney was killed while working on the site.

The quote from NT Worksafe said it would cost $36,897 to “consider” and “consult” the 102 external businesses on the request. The additional costings came from retrieving the information. After the NT News questioned the sum, NT Worksafe revealed it had identified 363 incidents at the site in the past five years — one for every five days.

Both the CFMEU and the Electrical Trades Union, who represent workers on the Inpex site, have called the costings unrealistic and an attempt to stop information being released. ETU NT organiser Dave Hayes said: “improving safety should be a transparent process”.

“Obviously personal details should be kept confidential but to put such a high price on showing real statistics is disgraceful,” he said.

“The project needs to come clean and recognise that many people have been hurt during construction and the management culture has to change. And by getting the true statistics, it can show where improvements need to be made and this should be embraced not obstructed.” CFMEU NT organiser Kane Lowth said the union did not believe the NT Worksafe was “doing the job”.

“It's not up to NT Worksafe to protect big business,” he said. “Having this sort of information more transparent would make the companies more accountable.”

NT Worksafe said reports on the 363 incidents included more than 3200 pages of information. “As required under the Information Act, all businesses must be consulted as a third party and all personal information redacted from the related documents,” a spokesman said.

“Documents relating to incidents still under investigation need to be identified and removed as they are exempt.”

At a rate of $25 per hour, NT Worksafe estimated it would take more than 332 hours to retrieve the requested information, and an additional 1475 hours to “consider and make a decision, including consulting with businesses involved.”