The unsafe option

What's more, the NSW system is stacked: the unjust laws are applied selectively. WorkCover NSW has a history of failing to prosecute state authorities. A union-owned labour hire company was not even investigated following the deaths of three of its employees in an underground coalmining disaster.

NSW unions can and do conduct prosecutions and receive half of the fines. In one three-year period, the unions netted several hundred thousand dollars from prosecutions.

It's a law and process based on old-fashioned political notions that employers always put profits above worker safety and that employers must be threatened with harsh legal retribution to make them heed safety regulations. This is class obsessed, hate-filled labour at its worst, embedding its hatred in law. It selectively destroys the application of criminal justice to achieve its tribal ends.

The ACTU wants the NSW laws to serve as the model for national legislation. Gillard, on the other hand, is proposing national laws that will dismantle the NSW system.

The Gillard model recognises that everyone at work must contribute to safety, whether they are an employer, an employee or self-employed. It's a model that secures the core principles of criminal justice.

This is new Labor, practical and results oriented. But don't underestimate the determination of old labour to have its way on OHS.