WORKSAFE ACT has slapped the ACT Legislative Assembly with a prohibition notice for failing to undertake “adequate” COVID-19 risk assessments.
It’s understood the work health and safety watchdog issued the notice following a complaint from a government minister regarding the risk of covid transmission inside the building.
The notice means that committee and estimates hearings will be unable to go ahead face-to-face until WorkSafe is satisfied that “adequate control measures are implemented.”
Mask wearing is currently not mandated in the Assembly but is “highly encouraged”.
Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly Joy Burch has criticised the notice and will now consider taking action against it in the Supreme Court, a move that opposition leader Elizabeth Lee has described as as “extraordinary” and “concerning”.
“The fact that the speaker is seeking legal advice about potential supreme court action confirms how serious this matter is,” she said.
“You do not see this kind of dysfunction in any other jurisdiction and this government cannot stand by its assertion that it is a stable, cohesive government.”
The government briefly sat in the Assembly this morning to debate a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Andrew Barr which failed to pass.
Who can be trusted?
In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.
If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.
Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.
Thank you,
Ian Meikle, editor
![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
Read the full article on our website citynews.com.au
#canberra #canberranews](https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
Leave a Reply