Safe Work Not Paper Work

It amazes me how in depth discussion can be had where the initial comment is pretty straight-foward. Case in point, the Housing Industry Association's 'Safe Work Not Paper Work' campaign*.

The campaign aims to draw the focus on building sites onto safety and away from just 'paperwork compliance'. That seems pretty straight-foward to me.

My fascination is with the misconception held by some regulators that the campaign advocates for 'no paperwork' at all. On the basis of that confusion, the regulators argue that paperwork is required so that they can see that work is being performed in a safe manner - or at least, that the contractor has done everything reasonable to ensure that work is being performed in a safe manner.

Well, of course some paperwork is required. But they miss the point.

There is a strong argument that regulatory compliance on principal contractors is too onerous. Thus, contractors are forced to focus on "filling out paperwork" rather than actually doing what they are meant to be doing.

What regulators may not fully appreciate is that contractors in the building industry are required to fill out a sleuth of paperwork - not just for safety compliance, but for contractual and technical compliance as wel. The paper work which is then meant to be "showing the the work is being performed in a safe manner" becomes just something else that has to be done along with quotes and tenders, filling out contracts, arranging tax and super, etc.

Once the in-depth dicussion was nearing an end, it was proposed that HIA's campaign would be more clear if its slogan read, 'Safe Work Not More Paper Work'.

But in my view, the slogan is pretty clear as it is. HIA's campaign says, let's change the focus of safety in building safety. Let's make the focus safe work, not paperwork.






*The views expressed in this comment are my own personal views only and are not in any way affiliated with the Housing Industry Association (HIA) or any government of Australia. To be clear, no consultation was undertaken with the HIA, any of their representatives or any representatives of the government before the drafting of this entry.