Allowing employers to send workers into unsafe conditions is criminal

Special laws on gangs, knives, guns and sexual assault are all heralded from the rooftops, but when it comes to addressing behaviour that leads to a fatality every single week, this Law and Order Administration seems to have run out of steam.

There have been attempts to bring in similar laws in the past, the Victorian Upper House blocked such a package in the Bracks Government’s first term, while the ACT Legislative Assembly is currently considering a similar proposition.

But to date they have all fallen over, because of a lack of political will, and the shrill influence of the business lobby.

Until politicians are prepared to apply the same laws to businessmen and company directors that they apply to teenage gangs, the carnage will continue, along with the feeling among many workers that there is no one in politics taking a stand on their behalf.

To argue that there should not be criminal sanctions for workplace deaths is to argue that workers are somehow worth less than other people. And that’s an offensive argument, as offensive as an $1800 fine.