100 signatures reached
To: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Make industrial manslaughter a crime
We need criminal provisions for industrial manslaughter in all states. Australians care about fairness, and it’s unarguably fair that if employers deliberately flout safety regulations which leads to a workplace death then this should be a punishable criminal offence.
Keeping workers alive shouldn’t be an optional extra. But, due to regulations currently enforced, that’s the way it is in most states and territories in Australia. The time has come for meaningful penalties for companies whose workers die due to lax safety.
Why is this important?
200 workers die in Australia every year in avoidable accidents. Each of these deaths destroys or disrupts the lives of dozens of people, sometimes for years. Each workers' absence sends waves of grief and loss through entire communities, and leaves holes that will never be filled.
The same companies responsible for these workers deaths take short cuts on safety time and again, because there is no meaningful law to deter their dangerous behaviour.