• Message from the Minister
• Statement of commitment
• Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Strategy 2004-12
• Workplace Health and Safety in Queensland
• Implementation of the Strategy
• The Challenge
  • 1. Workplace health and safety data
  • 2. Workplace health and safety research
  • 3. Regulatory framework
  • 4. Compliance support
  • 5. Practical guidance
  • 6. Strategic enforcement
  • 7. Workplace health and safety awareness
  • 8. Workplace health and safety skills
  • 9. Incentives

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Message from the Minister

The Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Strategy 2004-12 is part of the Government's commitment to reducing the human and financial cost of work-related injury and illness. Each year in Queensland, work-related injury and illness is estimated to cost the community more than $5 billion and claim around 100 lives.

The Queensland strategy follows a number of other safety initiatives, such as reform of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 kB) and the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (PDF, 788 kB). It is a blueprint for what Queensland aims to achieve over the next decade.

New penalties and responsibilities applying in workplaces have come into effect over the past 12 months. Some changes have brought new and tougher penalties; other changes provide better protection for workers. We have more inspectors to enforce the laws and have increased education and training for industry.

The co-operation and support offered by the community, particularly unions and employer groups, has shown what can be achieved when everyone works together to prevent work-related injury and illness.

The Queensland strategy, developed by the Workplace Health and Safety Board in partnership with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, builds on this spirit of co-operation. It unites industry, unions, and the Government in the battle to make workplace health and safety a priority for all Queenslanders, city and country, across small and large workplaces.

The Queensland strategy adopts the principles of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission's National Occupational Health and Safety Strategy 2002¿2012 (non-Queensland Government link), highlighting priorities and goals to reduce work-related death, injury and illness.

Five priority industries will be targeted to cut workplace incidents: manufacturing, construction, transport and storage, health and community services, and rural.

Three mechanisms of injury - musculo-skeletal disorders; falls, trips and slips, and being hit by moving objects or hitting objects with a part of the body - are also targeted. The Queensland strategy continues the partnership of Government, industry and unions working together to minimise the risk of workplace incidents.

I commend the Queensland strategy, and the Workplace Health and Safety Board, in presenting a far-reaching plan that reflects the needs and wishes of employers and employees - a plan that uses training, education and enforcement measures to help make Queensland workplaces safer and more productive.

Tom Barton MP
Minister for Employment, Training and Industrial Relations