Industrial manslaughter, for example in

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

law, is a crime where the action or inaction of an employer results in the death of an employee. Industrial manslaughter usually has a much broader scope than standard criminal manslaughter. Industrial manslaughter legislation is a common demand of trade unions, to allow the criminal prosecution of owners and employers for workplace deaths.

Implementation

The

has provisions for industrial manslaughter introduced in 2004
ACT Crimes Act 1900 (A1900-40) R32 13 July 2004 p44
In 2017, industrial manslaughter became an offence in Queensland in their workplace health and safety legislation, the ''Work Health and Safety Act 2011''. Despite the offence existing in four jurisdictions as of 2020, there have been no successful prosecutions.

Demands for Industrial manslaughter in NSW

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

provisions for industrial manslaughter were demanded by the trade union movement after the adolescent building industry worker Joel Exter fell off a domestic roof and died. Joel's union, the

CFMEU The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU, though most commonly still referred to as CFMEU) is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry, maritime, mining, energy, textile, clothing and footwear producti ...

conducted a significant campaign around his death. The Labor Party (ALP) government of NSW under

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He later en ...

denied that industrial manslaughter provisions were necessary as Workcover already has provisions for dealing with industrial death. The trade union movement argued that the manslaughter provisions of Workcover were ineffective, as reflected by a lack of prosecution of employers for workplace death.

Party positions on Industrial Manslaughter

The NSW Liberal Party does not believe specific industrial manslaughter provisions to be necessary. The NSW section of the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...

believes that industrial manslaughter should be a federal crime.

Victoria Passes Workplace Manslaughter Legislation

The Victorian Parliament passed the Workplace Safety Legislation Amendment (Workplace Manslaughter and other matters) Bill 2019 on 26 November 2019 and is expected to come into effect on a day to be proclaimed or, at the latest, 1 July 2020.

References

{{Reflist Australian criminal law Australian labour movement Manslaughter Australian Capital Territory law Workplace health and safety in Australia