Youth justice staff safety
Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (12:29): My question today is for the Minister for Workplace Safety. Minister, a recent media report stated that Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre was last year revealed as ‘among the most hazardous workplaces in Australia’, not just Victoria, with workers sent to hospital after assaults by detainees ‘at an average rate of almost one a month’. Minister, I have repeatedly asked you in this house whether you will intervene to ensure safe working conditions, and you have repeatedly said that that is not your job. Can you explain to Victorians why it is not your job as Minister for Workplace Safety to do something to fix this now infamously dangerous workplace?
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (12:29): I thank Dr Bach for his question and do take issue with the misrepresentation of me. I have never said such a thing. What I have sought to explain to Dr Bach and to the house is the very important independent nature of the compliance and enforcement activities undertaken by WorkSafe in their capacity as the safety regulator. Try as they might, the opposition consistently come in here and try to misrepresent that as somehow the government not taking responsibility, and nothing could be further from the truth of course. Our government is deeply committed to making sure that workers in Victoria are safe from harm, and that includes in youth justice. I know that my colleague Minister Hutchins has been working very closely with the workforce and their representatives and the department to make sure that the reform and infrastructure improvements that are being made to youth justice facilities have workplace safety at the heart of their design.
As I have already advised Dr Bach previously, WorkSafe have got a significant program involving working closely with health and safety representatives in youth justice facilities in Victoria and working with the employers, the duty holders and the department to continue to do everything possible to ensure that workers are safe. They work in incredibly challenging environments, and I think that nobody in this house would deny that that is a fact. They are working in very challenging workplace environments with young people, and we absolutely acknowledge the significant amount of work that they do in that regard and applaud them for their hard work and dedication. I am sure that the department and Minister Hutchins will continue to have workplace safety as a key focus in that portfolio.
Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (12:32): It is not just my earlier statements that are at odds with the minister’s responses in this house; it is the statements of the Premier. I would remind the minister again of what the Premier said when he appointed Minister Stitt to this portfolio. The Premier said:
In this role, Ms Stitt will continue our Government’s commitment to making our workplaces safer and ensuring every worker makes it home to their loved ones.
Minister, neither of these things is happening. Was the Premier not telling the truth, or are you just failing in your duties?
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (12:32): Aside from the complete disconnection between the substantive question and the supplementary, I am pretty proud of my very longstanding record of standing up for workers’ safety, and I have the absolute privilege of being able to do that as Minister for Workplace Safety in the Andrews Labor government. We will always look at ways that we can strengthen the health and safety framework in this state, and I invite those opposite to actually support those endeavours now and again, because if my memory is correct they have opposed pretty much every piece of workplace safety legislation that we have ever brought to this place. So forgive me for not taking Dr Bach’s question in the serious manner which he tries to present it in. They are not serious about workplace safety. Our side of the house are absolutely committed to continuing to make sure that Victorian workplaces are safe for our workers right across the state.