Self Employed Australia

"Everyone needs an Advocate"

“Everyone needs an Advocate”

Rule of law

Victorian WorkSafe still refusing to comply with its legal obligations

by

worksafe-failIt’s been eight weeks since the Victorian WorkSafe Authority failed to send to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) its investigation into the 2020 hotel quarantine disaster that led to 801 deaths. Every day it fails to do this is another day in which it is giving the big finger to the legal requirement it faces. We explained this 2 weeks ago.

It’s now 540 days since the quarantine disaster, 450 days since WorkSafe says it started the investigation and 330 days since we triggered the Act forcing WorkSafe to investigate.

Compare this to similar triggers for investigations made to WorkSafe in 2019-20. According to WorkSafe’s annual report, it had 11 requests that year and started all investigations within 9 days. The longest time to complete an investigation was 201 days.

The failure of WorkSafe in this current case is obvious and raises suspicion. What’s going on? I explained this and raised questions on national Italian radio last week. Listen here. (It’s in English.)

And talk about double standards. Look at this case. A hyperbaric company has been fined $726,750 over the death of a disabled patient. The company and director were found guilty of breaching section 26 of the Act (Duties of persons who manage or control workplaces). This is exactly one of the provisions that we alleged has been breached multiple times by the government in the hotel quarantine mess.

WorkSafe’s Acting Director Health and Safety said this of the case: “If you are running a business in Victoria, you have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of not only your workers but also members of the public …” We say ‘Yes’ to this. Is WorkSafe going to apply this standard to the Victorian government? So far, ‘No’ is the answer!

The Acting Director also said “WorkSafe will not hesitate to take action against employers who put people’s lives in danger by not having basic safety procedures in place.”  Well, we ask for that standard to be applied to the Victorian government. So far, all we see from WorkSafe is not just ‘hesitation’ but outright refusal to comply with its legal obligations.

Yesterday we again wrote to WorkSafe asking it to act as the law requires it to act. Here’s our letter. Here’s our Case for the Prosecution document.

The Case for the Prosecution: a “catastrophe waiting to happen”

by

Today we release a major report into why the Victorian government and others must be prosecuted for breaches in the 2020 Hotel Quarantine Program.

The Coate Report into the Program made no recommendations for prosecutions. However, this is because Coate did not consider the evidence from a work safety law perspective.

Self-Employed Australia has studied the Coate Report applying Victorian OHS law provisions. Based on the evidence and specialist OHS legal advice, we conclude that the case for the prosecution of the Victorian Government and others is overwhelming.

SEA has produced a 50-page report identifying the alleged breaches, referencing those breaches to the evidence in the Coate Report and OHS law. That report has been provided to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions.

Coate evidence – Infection control chaos

The evidence from the Coate Report is that at the high end of the program

The Department of Health

  • was the designated ‘control agency’ yet
  • refused to take control of ensuring that correct infection control implementation was applied in the hotels

The Department of Jobs controlled the hotel, cleaning and personnel contracts yet

  • asserted that it had no expertise in infection control and could not manage infection control implementation

Coate found that the dispute between Health and Jobs created chaos through the system from top to bottom. This meant that no-one took responsibility for infection control implementation.

Coate says that this created a “catastrophe waiting to happen”, a “ disaster that tragically came to be” caused by “lack of proper leadership and oversight”.

OHS law—breaches

OHS law holds persons liable both for what they do and what they fail to do.

The failure of the Victorian government to ensure proper lines of responsibility and accountability for the correct implementation of infection control procedures constitutes alleged breaches of the OHS Act at multiple levels by the Victorian government and other people.

From this central situation of ‘chaos’ and dysfunction, additional multiple breaches are revealed—for example, the training of staff working in the hotels in infection control procedures was chaotic, contradictory, inconsistent and conducted by people who had no infection control expertise. Failure to train staff is a specific breach of the OHS Act.

Conclusion

The evidence from the Coate Report is overwhelming for alleged multiple breaches of the Victorian OHS Act by the Victorian government, departments and other people. The evidence is so strong that prosecutions must occur. SEA’s report provides the detail.

Is WorkSafe Victoria grossly incompetent or is something else going on?

by

801-deathsToday, 29 June 2021, Victorian WorkSafe finally replied to us as to whether it is prosecuting the Victorian Government over the hotel quarantine deaths scandal.

Its reply? ‘We need more time!’

Here’s its letter.

It’s a shocker! Talk about bureaucratic ‘we’re doing a good job but it’s complex’ spin!

Let’s look at the facts:

  • It’s now 15 months since the hotel quarantine (deaths) program started.
  • It’s some 12 months since WorkSafe claim it started investigating.
  • It’s 9 months since we wrote to WorkSafe triggering provisions in the Work Safety Act requiring it to investigate. (Here’s our September 2020 ‘trigger’ letter.)

We’re dealing with the largest mass deaths in Victoria’s history from one event. WorkSafe’s performance on this displays gross incompetence at minimum. Or is this a cover-up? Is WorkSafe manoeuvring to protect people?

Consider this! WorkSafe has admitted that a prosecution must be brought within 2 years. Therefore if WorkSafe delays, can it claim the 2 years is up in March next year? Then no prosecution occurs? Can WorkSafe kill off justice by simply doing nothing?

Why did it take WorkSafe 3–4 months even to start an investigation? Incompetence or something else?

We’re not waiting. WorkSafe was required at law to reply to us today. It seems to do only what it is forced to do.

We’ve replied to WorkSafe today, triggering additional requirements under the Work Safety laws for WorkSafe to refer its investigation to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Here’s our letter.

The DPP then must review WorkSafe’s investigation files and recommend whether WorkSafe prosecute. Now will the DPP step up to the job? The clock is ticking.

This is the most critical test that the work safety and justice system in Victoria has ever faced. Are these authorities putting some people above the law? No-one should be above the law!

WorkSafe is failing this test. What will the DPP do?

This is about justice for the 801 people who died, their families, friends and the people of Victoria. It’s about the integrity of the work safety and justice system in Victoria.

We’re not going to let go. We’re not going to be conned by the tripe, spin and ‘nothing to see here’ approach of WorkSafe Victoria. This campaign has only just begun!

How the ATO ‘manages’ parliament – ATO techniques as ‘lawmaker’

by

In 2018, high-profile tax lawyer Mark Leibler stated that the ATO effectively makes tax law. He said:

“…for all intents and practical purposes, it’s effectively the (Tax) Commissioner who lays down the law.” “…Commissioner effectively continues to act as lawmaker…”

The accuracy of this statement can be seen, in part, in the way the ATO ‘manages’ its appearances before Parliamentary Committees.

Our observation is that the ATO is polite, professional but provides answers only in general ways, avoids specifics and always emphasises how ‘nice, reasonable, and sensible’ it is. It uses the ‘you can trust us’ approach. By using this approach the ATO deflects attention away from facts that show them to be unreasonable, unfair, aggressive, breaching rules and intent on being an arbitrary tax ‘lawmaker’. In our view the ATO usurps the parliamentary process of democracy in this manner.

We’ve monitored some of the recent Senate quizzing of the ATO (2 and 3 June). Here are some YouTube clips you might find interesting. We think these clips give an insight into the ATO, but we’ll let you decide what you think of the ATO’s parliamentary management techniques.

In our view the Australian Parliament needs stronger oversight of the ATO’s tax management processes. Legislation is needed to achieve this.

Major radio media campaign starts. Victorian OHS Quarantine Prosecution

by

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

We’ve had fantastic support from lots of people in our campaign to push Victoria’s WorkSafe to investigate/prosecute the Victorian government over the failed 2020 Covid quarantine program. Remember, no-one should be above the law. 801 deaths cannot be ignored.

As a key part of that campaign, tomorrow, Wednesday 21 April, we launch a serious media campaign to push WorkSafe to do their job.

Tomorrow we begin a three-week breakfast radio advertising campaign on Melbourne’s top talk-back radio station, 3AW.
Here’s the 30-second advert:

Play sound file

To update you on the situation with WorkSafe:

  • They had to get back to us by end of March. They have replied ‘we’re still investigating!’
  • Now the deadline is end of June. By then they must formally inform us in detail whether WorkSafe is prosecuting on each of the 142 breaches we have alleged.

Full updates on the facts, events and WorkSafe correspondence is here.

We must maximise the public pressure on WorkSafe to do their job and do it properly. We have plans for considerable ongoing major media activity. If you’d like to help, you can contribute $s here. If you have already contributed, our thanks.

Recently, respected TV journalist George Donikian interviewed Ken Phillips on who we (Self-Employed Australia) are and why we are running the OHS prosecution campaign. Here’s the interview:


We’ve also produced a four-minute video on why Covid was not unprecedented. The Victorian government will try, we believe, to claim ‘unprecedented’ as a defence. But the facts and evidence is that Covid was fully expected and predicted. Watch the video here:

Soon we’ll do another of our Zoom updates. We’ll let you know when.

Be afraid: Victoria’s 4th attempt at quarantine

by

Be afraid. Last Thursday (8 April) the Victorian government restarted its Covid hotel quarantine program.

This is the fourth attempt. The first two attempts from March 2020 resulted in Covid being released into the community, months of lockdown and 801 deaths.

The third quarantine program attempt started on 7 December 2020. On that day Self-Employed Australia warned of problems. Our information was that basic, simple procedures were not in place and that quarantine ‘HQ’ was dysfunctional. By 12 February 2021 Victoria was back into lockdown.

Procedure breaches were simple. For example, staff who had close contact with quarantined travellers and who were supposed to work in isolated rooms were called into mass staff meetings. Just plain dumb.

Even if Covid-19 was ‘unprecedented’ (although on basic facts it was fully expected and known), the health and safety breaches were overwhelming of basic, common-sense things.

Let’s hope this fourth attempt will be more successful. Perhaps it might be better. Our information is that, sometime around early March 2021, WorkSafe inspectors ‘marched’ into Quarantine HQ asking specific questions. “Show us your policy on this?” “Where are the instructions for that?” and so on. This panicked bureaucrats who couldn’t supply immediate answers.

Since then, we believe that WorkSafe has essentially taken control oversight of the quarantine program. Take one example. All men working in quarantine must be clean-shaven. This is to ensure a proper seal when wearing face PPE.

Even with WorkSafe oversight there are big procedural gaps.

Some six weeks or so ago, when vaccination of quarantine staff started, the instruction was that vaccination was voluntary. Staff planning happened accordingly. But now vaccination of all quarantine staff is compulsory. It will take several weeks to get additional potential staff vaccinated. This is basic dysfunctional management.

But there’s more! Covid outbreaks from quarantine have a set pattern. The first line of infection is from infected travellers to quarantine staff. Then from quarantine to, most commonly, the staffs’ immediate family or house mates.

New South Wales has a program of vaccinating quarantine staff and the staffs’ immediate family/house contacts. That is, they’re vaccinating to create two lines of first-level defence. And Victoria? Nah! Quarantine staff are being vaccinated but there’s no reported intention to vaccinate quarantine staff family/house contacts.

Again, what’s being witnessed in Victoria is dysfunctional management. It’s not Covid itself that is the immediate problem. It’s the management of the quarantine system that is the threat to the health and safety of all Victorians. This is why we insist that WorkSafe must prosecute the Victorian government over the 801 deaths.

If prosecutions don’t occur, the full extent of the dangerous dysfunctionality will never be revealed and correction and improvement of the system will not occur. Victorians remain at risk!

Victorian Government and Premier: Indictable criminal offences investigation

by

You’ll be aware of our requests to WorkSafe Victoria for prosecutions to be brought against the Victorian government and several individuals over the Hotel Quarantine Program that resulted in alleged 801 deaths from Covid-19 last year. Our Campaign summary and key details are here.

We have had a major development that we can report to you.

Late last week (4 March) we received a letter from WorkSafe Victoria confirming again that WorkSafe is investigating breaches of work health and safety laws related to the Hotel Quarantine Program. This is significant. Here are the core facts.

The WorkSafe letter says:

I refer to your request for WorkSafe Victoria to bring prosecutions against various individuals and entities associated with the Covid-19 Hotel Quarantine Program.

Please be advised that Worksafe’s investigation is still ongoing…

This is the clearest confirmation from WorkSafe of an investigation. Further it confirms that the investigation is occurring because of our correspondence to WorkSafe last year. Our key letter of 29 September 2020 uses section 131 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. That Section requires WorkSafe to investigate alleged work safety breaches when requested.

In our letter of 29 September we identified 142 breaches of the work safety laws.

All 142 offences we identified are indictable criminal offences.

We named 20 individuals and 6 entities as requiring investigation.

This includes:

  • The Victorian Premier and 3 Ministers;
  • The Chief Health Officer and 15 other heads of departments/agencies;
  • The State of Victoria and 4 departments/agencies;
  • Victorian Trades Hall Council.

The full list of individuals and entities is in our correspondence of 29 Sept here.

The significance of the WorkSafe letter of 4 March is that it confirms that the named individuals and entities are being investigated for indictable criminal offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The processes and procedures that are required under the Act mean that WorkSafe:

  • must complete its investigation in a timely manner;
  • must investigate each of the 142 alleged breaches against each of the 20 individuals and 6 entities;
  • must write to us informing us of their decision to prosecute or not on each of the 142 alleged breaches.

Where WorkSafe decides not to prosecute or it has not brought a prosecution by late June (nine months from the date of our September 2020 letter) the matter/s must be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions on our request.

And

  • the Director of Public Prosecutions must consider the matter/s and advise WorkSafe whether a prosecution should be bought. We must receive a copy of this advice and if WorkSafe declines to follow the DPP’s advice, it must provide us with written advice for its decision.

For your easy reference here are the four key documents:

• Section 131
• Relevant indictable criminal offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act
• Our letter to WorkSafe 29 September 2020
• WorkSafe letter to us 4 March 2021

We shall continue to pursue this vital issue. It is important that in a just and fair society where the rule of law applies, that no-one is above the law, including government. 801 deaths cannot be ignored or forgotten and must be investigated to ensure that all Victorians and Australians are kept safe.

We shall keep you informed.

Victorian Covid lockdown (again). The evidence. Victorian Government failures. Prosecution

by

With Victoria back into another hard lockdown, we are following through on our campaign to have the Victorian government prosecuted for breaches of health and safety laws.

Today we release our YouTube assessment of “Was Covid-19 unprecedented?” The Victorian government uses this excuse to say that it was/is not responsible for over 800 deaths.

We present the evidence that a flu pandemic was expected and that it was well known that Covid-19 was coming. Click on the image to view the 4-minute video.

You can read the full details with links to source documents here.

We are finalizing an assessment of the causes of the latest Victorian hotel quarantine failure and will publish this shortly. This will support an additional letter we will be sending to WorkSafe Victoria. We will be advising them of the need to prosecute the Victorian government for breaches of health and safety laws over this latest quarantine failure. The evidence requires prosecution. More information soon.

800 deaths – The facts are clear. The Vic government must be prosecuted

by

It would be dangerous to forget or ignore that 800 people died due to the Victorian government’s hotel quarantine disaster. We cannot simply ‘move on’ and pretend that 800 people did not die. That’s dangerous. That’s unsafe.

That’s why today we’re launching the next phase of our campaign to push for the prosecution of the Victorian government under work safety laws.

We write to WorkSafe
Here’s our letter, sent today, to the Victorian WorkSafe Authority, the prosecuting body. We provide them evidence that hotel quarantine plans should have been in place when they were not.

Hong Kong had clear plans that could have been used.

We remind WorkSafe of evidence from one officer who said

“Each outbreak was treated like a secret and nothing seemed to change…”

And a doctor who warned of bad procedures saying

“This is placing individuals at risk”

The pandemic was NOT unprecedented
In separate facts we explain why the Covid pandemic was not unprecedented and was fully expected and planned for, BUT the Victorian government forgot(?) to do a hotel quarantine plan!

And here we explain how the work safety laws apply.

Into and during 2021
This next phase of our campaign will continue through all of 2021. This is just the start. We have a research and legal team. We are preparing more evidence of why prosecution must occur. We will make this public and deliver it to WorkSafe.

Join/support our campaign. You can contribute $s here if you can.

Register your details here for information and updates.

Bad things happen if good people do nothing!

800 Deaths – Social media campaign to prosecute Victorian Government

by

Today (18 December) we launch our social media campaign to ‘encourage’ WorkSafe Victoria to prosecute the Victorian government over the hotel quarantine disaster. Prosecution must occur.

800 deaths must not be ignored or forgotten.

No one must be above the law.

Here’s our ad. Click on the image for the YouTube video (43 secs):

Get the word out. Spread the message.

Share this ad. Share the link.

Support our social media advertising campaign. Contribute $s here to our campaign.

Just $10 will enable around another 50 people to hear/see the message.

Stay up to date with the campaign. Register your details here for information and updates.