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WorkSafe ‘doesn’t have an option’ on Andrews government investigation

    Sky News Australia – Mar 11, 2021

    Executive Director of Independent Contractors of Australia Ken Phillips says WorkSafe Victoria “doesn’t have an option” to leave specific things undone with their investigation into the Andrews government’s hotel quarantine.

    “We have utilised a provision in the Act, that then requires WorkSafe itself to do certain things, they don’t have an option here,” Mr Phillips told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

    “They have very specific things that they have to do”.

    “The timeline is – at the moment – that by the end of March, they have to reply to us, or to me, and say whether or not they are undertaking prosecutions, or they can ask for another three months of investigation.”

    Mr Phillips said this means that by the end of June, the WorkSafe authority must announce either they are undertaking prosecutions, or they are not.

    “If they decide not to undertake prosecutions on any one of the 142 incidents that we have identified, they must write to us and give us a full explanation as to why not, we are then entitled to request the reference of those non-prosecutions to the director of prosecutions Victoria,” he said.

    “That’s where the situation – in the immediate term – sits, the WorkSafe authority doesn’t have an option with this.”

    Sky News Australia

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