WorkSafe Victoria
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (12:30): My question is again to the Minister for Workplace Safety. Minister, the minutes of the 23 February 2021 meeting of the board of WorkSafe show:
The Minister for Workplace Safety, (the) Honourable Ingrid Stitt and the Minister’s Chief of Staff, Enrico Burgio attended (Board) Quiet Time for a portion of the session.
Minister, you have repeatedly claimed WorkSafe to be an independent agency where intervention on your part would be inappropriate. In this circumstance I ask: what was discussed in the quiet time?
Members interjecting.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! I call Minister Stitt, without any assistance, please.
Mr Leane interjected.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Minister Leane, I have asked for quiet for Minister Stitt’s answer. Can we have Minister Stitt without any assistance, please.
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (12:31): Thank you, Mr Davis, for that question. You are quoting from what you purport to say are the minutes of a WorkSafe board meeting. I have not seen those minutes. I am not familiar with the term ‘quiet time’, so I cannot enlighten you in respect to the terminology used in those purported minutes that you are quoting from. But what I can say is that I have a constructive relationship with the senior management and the board of WorkSafe, as you would expect me to have. There have been a number of times since I was sworn in as the Minister for Workplace Safety where I have met with the board to discuss various issues, usually issues that are absolutely focused on some of the challenges facing modern workplaces when it comes to prevention of injury and when it comes to the increase and the prevalence of mental injury in Victorian workplaces and the need to make sure that the WorkSafe authority have got a very responsive and sophisticated approach to managing complex claims.
You would be aware that there has been a lot of reform going on by the Andrews Labor government in the workplace safety portfolio, including the government’s response to the Rozen review, which was an independent review into how complex claims are managed—and that was obviously the subject of some discussion between me, my office and WorkSafe, including the board—and also issues relating to the government’s priorities and expectations of WorkSafe when it comes to what they ought to be focusing on. I do not make any apology whatsoever for regularly—
Mr Davis: On a point of order, Deputy President, again this is a highly specific question. It is a specific day, it is a specific meeting and it is a specific point in the minutes that it recorded. I have asked the minister what was discussed on that day, 23 February, during that period.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Mr Davis, as you know, I cannot direct the minister to answer. That is not a point of order.
Ms Shing: On the point of order, Deputy President, again, if Mr Davis had listened to the very first opening sentences of the minister’s response, he would have actually noted that in fact the question was directly addressed. The minister is well within her rights within the terms available to expand upon her answer in the course of the time that is available to her.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Ms Shing, that is not a point of order.
Ms Shing: It was further to the point of order, Deputy President.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Mr Davis’s point of order is not a point of order. I cannot direct the minister to respond in a manner that he wants. The minister has 45 seconds left in which to respond.
Ms STITT: Thank you, Deputy President. I was in the process of indicating that it will be my practice to regularly speak with both the board and the senior executives at WorkSafe to talk about the priorities of the Andrews Labor government when it comes to the safety of all Victorian workers.
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (12:35): Further, the minutes of the 25 August 2021 meeting of the board of WorkSafe refer to ‘the weekly meetings that the (WorkSafe) Chair and CEO have with the Minister for Workplace Safety’. Minister, isn’t it a fact that your claim that WorkSafe is not directed by you and is an entirely independent agency where intervention on your part would be inappropriate is only applied when it suits you and the reality is very different? You give them direction and you make it very clear to them what the government wants, isn’t it a fact?
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (12:36): Thank you, Mr Davis, for that question. I just find this staggering. Are you actually suggesting that ministers are not engaged with the agencies that they are responsible for in their portfolios? That would invite all sorts of criticism, I am sure, if it was a situation where we were not engaging regularly, professionally and constructively with the agencies and departments that we work with day in and day out. What I have said in this house consistently is that I do not direct the enforcement and compliance activities of the independent safety regulator. That is a very different question to whether or not I engage with the WorkSafe management and board about priorities in this portfolio. It is an absolute nonsense to suggest that that is not appropriate in every way.