As our contribution to this symposium into the review of model occupational health and safety laws, we have been requested to comment upon parts 3, 4 and 5 of the First Report to the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (‘the report’) of the National Review Panel (‘the panel’). These parts of the report respectively cover: offences relating to breaches of duties of care; other matters relevant to duty of care offences, and defences.
Out of the 75 recommendations contained in the first report, just over one third, that is 26 recommendations flow from these three sections, and we have set them out in an appendix to this paper.