Regulating farm safety: towards an optimal policy mix

Abstract

Each state and territory in Australia has a principal Occupational Health and Safety Act, under which farm machinery (which falls under the broad definition of “plant”) is regulated by virtue of (i) general occupational health and safety (OHS) duties on specific obligation-bearers; and (ii) specific regulations and Codes of Practice which deal with particular safety issues in more detail. In an attempt to address a lack of OHS regulatory uniformity in terms of (ii) above, the National Standard for Plant was developed and introduced in 1994. It creates a single overarching set of performance and process-based duties that require obligation-bearers to undertake hazard identification, risk analysis and risk control. The aim is to eliminate, and where that is not practicable to minimise, the risks to health and safety. Each jurisdiction also has some form of regulation (at differing stages of development and reform) regarding plant which impose legal obligations on responsible parties relevant to the life-cycle of a piece of farm machinery. In some states this essentially reproduces the provisions of the National Standard on Plant while in others it goes beyond this to impose more specific requirements. Guidance as to measures which might be taken to comply with those obligations may be found in a range of material including approved Codes of Practice (Advisory Standards in Queensland), and guidance notes by industry or regulatory bodies There are also a number of relevant Australian and international standards, the latter being particularly significant as the majority of farm machinery in Australia is imported. These other standards are voluntary and do not have legal force (other than to provide evidence of what a reasonable duty holder would do to comply with a certain legal obligation) unless adopted and prescribed in legislation/regulation. There are a number of significant problems with the current legal framework. How they might be overcome and how the regulatory regime might better contribute to improved occupational health and safety in the agricultural sector, is the subject of the remainder of the paper.