WorkSafe Victoria closer to Covid probe

Jennifer Coate AO speaks during COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry last July. Picture: Getty Images

I have always believed that the chief of WorkSafe Victoria, Colin Radford, and his staff would launch a detailed investigation into the role of the Victorian Premier plus relevant current and past cabinet ministers and public servants. We have not got that far yet but we are getting much closer.

When the investigation extends to the people involved it will determine whether those being investigated should be prosecuted for breaching Victoria’s occupational health and safety rules.

Most believed I was wrong and WorkSafe would turn a blind eye to Australia’s largest industrial accident — the COVID quarantine bungles — that killed 800 people and created incredible damage to the nation and the state.

Few commentators took WorkSafe and its power seriously, believing the state’s Labor Party would be able to sweep the disaster under the carpet.

What was not realised was that WorkSafe was caught in a pincer.

Some of Australia’s top OHS lawyers are advising the chief executive of Self-Employed Australia, Ken Phillips, and they are making it almost impossible for WorkSafe to do a “carpet job”.

WorkSafe is adamant that this was never their plan. However, if somehow WorkSafe managed to avoid action then the precedents created would have repercussions for worker and community protection in Victoria.

We can reveal that WorkSafe has now confirmed its investigation covers “individuals and entities” — exactly what is required. They will look at events and then relate guilt or innocence to the individuals or entities.

I must emphasise that the fact that there is an “individuals and entities” investigation does not mean that the politicians and public servants are guilty.

We are still hanging on to the base of our society — that you are innocent until proven guilty — even though that concept is now being increasingly tested in some circles.

Nevertheless, given this is a criminal matter, the penalties in Victoria’s OHS rules can be up to 25 years jail and fines of some $16m, this is an extremely serious matter. It will not be easy for Premier Daniel Andrews, cabinet ministers and public servants to continue their functions while under the pressure of such an investigation.

If they step down (and they probably won’t), it will enable Victoria to take from its pigeon hole the detailed Victorian crisis plan that revolves around cabinet responsibility.

Mission failure

The current quarantine system has not worked.

The original error can be traced back to one fundamental disastrous decision — the replacement of cabinet accountability with a new untried system of government decision-making called “missions”.

These “missions” would bring together people from different areas to solve problems and tackle new tasks.

They cut across cabinet authority and usually reported to the Premier, which further enhanced his ability to deliver “the message”.

Victoria had a very detailed set of carefully structured plans that was established for a crisis, but when it came to the biggest crisis of all, the COVID-19 pandemic, Victoria abandoned its carefully set out plan and instead embraced the untried ideas.

It was a disaster that opened up a large number of apparent OHS breaches.

When Steve Bracks was Victorian premier, he passed some of the best OHS rules in the country.

The first part of the Bracks OHS legislation was that he made it easy for ordinary people to alert the head of WorkSafe Victoria and the Director of Public Prosecution that an OHS offence may have taken place. And once such notification is made to the WorkSafe chief he must either prosecute or publicly give good reasons for not prosecuting.

One of the important aspects of the WorkSafe investigation into “entities and people” will be to determine why so many public servants and ministers cried out in the inquiry run by Jennifer Coate, “I don’t know”.

Part of those answers was the confusion and lack of systems that came out of the missions structure disaster.

But I suspect an equal reason for the apparent memory lapses was fear.

The fact that the industrial manslaughter legislation is now part of the occupational health and safety regime means that ministers and public servants could be jailed.

Even though 801 people were killed, that is still a huge penalty. Radford’s job is to use his powers to get to the truth.