Monthly Archives: January 2012

New national Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws have been developed to replace the existing state based Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws. The WHS laws mean that the same safety protection and the same penalties for safety offences will apply across all locations in Australia, starting from 1 January 2012 for all States except Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Nature of work has changed over the years. Places of work have varied greatly and it is becoming more common for some workers to work from their home. Alternative employment arrangements such as labour-hire, contractors and the use of volunteers are also becoming more widespread. The national WHS laws have been developed to reflect these changes and information can be found on the Safe Work Australia Website at www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au.

Owners corporations need to demonstrate due diligence by creating systems and processes so that they may be seen to be doing things to improve health and safety within their strata scheme.

The NSW Government recently announced plans for a review of strata and community title laws in 2012 and is providing an opportunity for anyone involved or interested in the strata community to provide input to support the reform.

Global Access Partners (GAP), which is an experienced facilitator of online community consultations, is hosting on Open Forum, which closes on 29 February 2012.

This is a prospect not to be missed to raise your concerns or offer suggestions. Log onto www.openforum.com.au/strata where you will find a range of questions to comment on.

Every child drowning is a tragedy as most are preventable!

In an endeavour to increase the safety of very young children around backyard swimming pools, the Division of Local Government has issued a Swimming Pools Act 1992 Review Discussion Paper and is seeking from pool owners, local councils, and all stakeholders an indication of their support on a range of proposed amendments to this Act and other relevant legislation.

Some suggested amendments include:

1. New requirements for private swimming pool owners (which will include multiple dwellings) to register their pool with their local council and to self-certify the pool barrier’s compliance with the Swimming Pools Act;
2. New requirements for councils to undertake private swimming pool inspections within their local government areas; and
3. Increase to penalty amounts for most offences under the Act.

Submissions are invited by 5.00pm Friday 24 February 2012.

Further responsibilities and obligations on owners with swimming pools have also been addressed in recent amendments to the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2010 and the Residential Tenancies Act 2010.

Further information may be found on the Division of Local Government Website:
http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/dlg/dlghome/PublicTopicsIndex.asp?mi=0&ml=10&id=12