You’ll be aware of our requests to WorkSafe Victoria for prosecutions to be brought against the Victorian government and several individuals over the Hotel Quarantine Program that resulted in alleged 801 deaths from Covid-19 last year. OurCampaign summary and key details are here.
We have had a major development that we can report to you.
Late last week (4 March) we received aletter from WorkSafe Victoriaconfirming again that WorkSafe is investigating breaches of work health and safety laws related to the Hotel Quarantine Program. This is significant. Here are the core facts.
The
WorkSafe lettersays:
This is the clearest confirmation from WorkSafe of an investigation. Further it confirms that the investigation is occurring because of our correspondence to WorkSafe last year. Our
key letter of 29 September 2020uses section 131 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. That Section requires WorkSafe to investigate alleged work safety breaches when requested.
In our
letter of 29 Septemberwe identified 142 breaches of the work safety laws.
All 142 offences we identified areindictable criminal offences.
We named 20 individuals and 6 entities as requiring investigation.
This includes:
- The Victorian Premier and 3 Ministers;
- The Chief Health Officer and 15 other heads of departments/agencies;
- The State of Victoria and 4 departments/agencies;
- Victorian Trades Hall Council.
The full list of individuals and entities is in our correspondence of 29 Sept
here.
The significance of the WorkSafe letter of 4 March is that it confirms that the named individuals and entities
are being investigated for indictable criminal offencesunder the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The processes and procedures that are required under the Act mean that WorkSafe:
- must complete its investigation in a timely manner;
- must investigate each of the 142 alleged breaches against each of the 20 individuals and 6 entities;
- must write to us informing us of their decision to prosecute or not on each of the 142 alleged breaches.
Where WorkSafe decides not to prosecute or it has not brought a prosecution by late June (nine months from the date of our September 2020 letter) the matter/s must be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions on our request.
And
- the Director of Public Prosecutions must consider the matter/s and advise WorkSafe whether a prosecution should be bought. We must receive a copy of this advice and if WorkSafe declines to follow the DPP’s advice, it must provide us with written advice for its decision.
For your easy reference here are the four key documents:
•
Section 131•
Relevant indictable criminal offences under theOccupational Health and Safety Act•
Our letter to WorkSafe 29 September 2020•
WorkSafe letter to us 4 March 2021We shall continue to pursue this vital issue. It is important that in a just and fair society where the rule of law applies, that no-one is above the law, including government. 801 deaths cannot be ignored or forgotten and must be investigated to ensure that all Victorians and Australians are kept safe.
We shall keep you informed.
Victorian Government and Premier: Indictable criminal offences investigation (selfemployedaustralia.com.au)
