Occupational Health & Safety Reform
Australian Institute of Company Directors' OH&S policy and communications activity
Media Activity
Opinion articles by John Colvin, CEO and Managing Director
22 October 2010: Opinion article by John H C Colvin on OH&S published in The Australian
21 October 2009: Opinion article by John H C Colvin on the Boardroom Burden Report Card and the director liability issue (relevant to OH&S) published in The Australian Financial Review
2 March 2009: Opinion article on the need for OH&S reform published in The Age
Media releases
19 May 2009: Directors welcome breakthrough on national Occupational Health and Safety laws
17 April 2009: AICD welcomes Commonwealth review of directors’ liabilities
Company Director articles (selection from 2008 to 2010)
1 April 2010: Opinion – Easing the OH&S burden
1 February 2010: Opinion – Balancing the director liability burden
1 February 2009: Inside AICD – Director liability – AICD welcomes findings on director liability
1 October 2008: CEO Report – Towards principled OH&S laws
1 October 2008: OH&S Reform – A welcome new era
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Submissions to Government on OH&S law reform
7 December 2009: Letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on harmonisation of OH&S laws
6 November 2009: AICD Submission to Safe Work Australia on Safe Work Act 2009 (Model Safe Work provisions)
14 July 2008: National Review into model Occupational Health and Safety laws
12 December 2006: Inquiry into the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Legislation
14 July 2006: Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000
Meetings in 2009/10 with Federal and State Government representatives to discuss director liability and OH&S reform issues
Federal
Chris Bowen, Minister for Corporate Law (multiple meetings)
Lindsay Tanner, Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation (twice)
Wayne Swan, Federal Treasurer
Craig Emerson, Federal Minister for Consumer Affairs and Small Business, Minister Assisting the Minister for Deregulation
Robert McClelland, Attorney General
Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs
Bruce Billson Shadow Minister for Small Business and Deregulation
Helen Coonan, Shadow Minister for Finance
Malcolm Turnbull MP
Fran Bailey MP
David Bradbury Parliamentary secretary for Corporate Law
State
NSW
Michael Daley, Minister for Finance and Regulation (with responsibility for OH&S)
John Hatzistergos, Attorney General
Eric Roozendaal, Treasurer
Joe Tripodi MP, Minister for Regulatory Reform (with responsibility for OH&S)
Barry O’Farrell, Opposition Leader
Mike Baird, Shadow Treasurer (twice)
Greg Smith, Shadow Attorney-General
Pru Goward, Shadow Minister for Community Services and Women
Victoria
John Lenders, Treasurer
WA
Treasurer Troy Buswell’s chief of staff and senior departmental official
Tasmania
Lisa Singh, Minister for Workplace Relations (with responsibility for OH&S)
Lara Giddings Deputy Premier
Qld
Andrew Fraser, Treasurer (with responsibility for OH&S)
SA / NT
John Rau, Attorney General
Kevin Foley, Treasurer
Paul Caica MP, Minister for Industrial Relations (with responsibility for OHS)
Northern Territory
Terry Mills, Opposition leader
MINCO director liability reform principles
On 6 November 2009, the Ministerial Council for Corporations (MINCO) released a set of Principles for reform of state legislation in relation to personal director liability for corporate fault.
We responded with a media release describing the MINCO principles as a disappointment, which fell well short of the reform principles originally agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
John H C Colvin said that while some aspects of the principles were an improvement on the treatment of directors under current laws – notably, MINCO’s recognition that, where a corporation contravenes a statutory requirement, the corporation should be held liable in the first instance, and the principle that directors should not be liable for corporate fault as a matter of course or by the blanket imposition of liability across an entire Act – they left open the imposition of criminal liability on directors in a potentially wide range of circumstances, retained a reverse onus of proof in some cases and lacked a clear business judgement rule.
In December 2009, John H C Colvin met with the Minister for Corporate Law, Chris Bowen.
COAG liability reforms – government relations activity
John H C Colvin met with the new Minister for Corporations Law, Chris Bowen in August 2009. He also met with the Federal Minister for Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, in September 2009 to discuss a range of issues of concern to us.
Subsequent to our meeting with Minister Tanner, he wrote a column on Fairfax Media (online) on the director liability issue, which was highly supportive of our position and called for reform and harmonisation of director liability laws across State and Territory jurisdictions.
Open Letter
On 16 July 2010, the Australian Institute of Company Directors wrote an Open Letter to the next government of Australia calling for action on key issues for directors, including director liability and OH&S reform.
The Open Letter was distributed to Government ministers and parliamentary secretaries, Opposition shadow ministers, some key backbenchers, the Leader of the Australian Greens and cross-bench Senators Xenophon and Fielding. Copies were also sent to other business groups, including the Business Council of Australia, key regulators and other stakeholders.
Our Open Letter received strong coverage in The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, The Age, The West Australian and elsewhere, and has received consistent follow up coverage since.
John H C Colvin was quoted extensively in a front page AFR article on 16 August on the subject of the business community’s priorities for the election.
DIRECTOR LIABILITY/OH&S SURVEYS AND RESEARCH
New survey
Following the 2008 Federal Treasury Survey of Company Directors, we invited all members to complete an expanded version of our director liability survey, titled The Impact of Legislation on Directors.
Download the full PDF report.
See the media release: Liability laws damaging the economy.
Boardroom Burden Report Card
As part of the wider public affairs campaign on director liability, we developed the Boardroom Burden Report Card (BBRC). This presented the findings of research, conducted with the assistance of Minter Ellison, regarding the “business friendliness” of state-based legal regimes in terms of the content of laws imposing liability on directors, the number of laws in operation in each state and territory and the procedural fairness with which they are administered.
The study provided the basis for strong “evidence-based” media and government relations activity. It received wide media coverage in The Australian Financial Review, BRW, Business Spectator, The West Australian and other publications. John H C Colvin also conducted an interview on the issue with Sky Business News.
An 800-word opinion article by John H C Colvin on the Boardroom Burden Report Card and the director liability issue was published in The Australian Financial Review on 21 October 2009.
The research was distributed to key government and opposition stakeholders, including Ministers Bowen, Tanner and Emerson, and presented to relevant ministers as collateral in our government relations meetings.