The Hon. MICHAEL GALLACHER: I direct a question without notice to the Minister for Education and Training. Does the Minister recall his statement in the Australian on 26 March that in order to "achieve quick and significant progress in the area of occupational health and safety harmonisation, it is important we achieve agreement on duties of care, including the identification of duty-holders and the scope and limit of duties"? WillCan the Minister outline in detail to the House, which parts of the 2006 draft bill to change the Occupational Health and Safety Act failed to meet these criteria for successful reform?

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: I did not realise that the Leader of the Opposition could make me sound more eloquent than I recall being but I think he has missed the entire point—

The Hon. Duncan Gay: If that is the case, he has misled the House.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: Well, he often does that. He has accidentally, inadvertently, or perhaps deliberately, misrepresented both my comments and the nature of the current policy debate about occupational health and safety and harmonisation. From one perspective both the current legislation and the draft review legislation do not comply with harmonisation because no-one does. The resolution and the comments that I made about this matter relate to discussions held at the Ministerial Council of Industrial Relations and Workplace Ministers where we discussed with the Deputy Prime Minister—the Minister responsible for this portfolio at the Commonwealth level—what strategy would be put in place to most rapidly deal with the issues that the national and international employers most frequently complain about in the jurisdiction of occupational health and safety. It is just as true as when the member quoted me, as it was when I made the original comments, and it has been reinforced by the comments I made with the Commonwealth Minister and other ministerial colleagues. Indeed, the public comments of the Commonwealth Minister and the communiqué that came out of the recent Council of Australian Governments meeting in relation to the drafting issue—

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: But that draft bill fixed a lot of those concerns of the employers.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: No, it did not because we do not yet have a harmonised set of arrangements.

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: But you should lead the way.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: New South Wales will lead the way. New South Wales has undertaken a review of that legislation and has provided the Commonwealth and the other jurisdictions with a way forward to get national consistency on duty- holder provisions and national consistency on the defences. I might add—I think it is something that most of the House would support but maybe not the other side—that New South Wales has the best occupational health and safety framework in Australia, if not the best in the world, and we will not go backwards. When we harmonise the priority areas that the Commonwealth Minister has agreed to work on most ardently and quickly, then we will achieve the best possible harmonised duty -holder provisions on a national level and still preserve the features of our system which I think make it the best in the country, if not in the world.

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: The 2006 bill would be a pretty good start.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: Indeed. I have already given my reasons why we are making sure that we get everything exactly right. We have the best laws and substantial parts of the draft review legislation will further improve it. The objective of the Government is to harmonise those areas that are of most importance to national employers and we are working with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Commonwealth Government and national employer organisations to do that.