New SafeWork SA Advisory Committee includes AIHS Representation
Date:
Tuesday, 2 May, 2023 - 10:30
Category:
Member update
Location:
National News
Recently, I was delighted to receive a letter from the SA Attorney-General and Minister responsible for WHS, the Hon. Kyam Maher accepting AIHS’s recommendations for membership of a new SafeWork SA Advisory Committee.
The AIHS member is Craig Schopp FAIHS, ChOHSP, M.OHS., who is the Immediate Past Chair of the SA AIHS Branch and who has advocated for such representation for about a decade. Minister Maher agreed that our alternate would be Dr Valerie O’Keeffe, FAIHS, FHFESA, CPE, M.Ergon., PhD who will attend if Craig is unavailable. For those who don’t know them, you can find out more about Craig and Valerie on their LinkedIn pages. The new Committee held its first meeting on 19 April 2023 which mostly addressed preliminary and governance matters.
Background to the appointments includes having Minister Maher as a keynote speaker at the SA Branch October 2022 Symposium at which he invited us to make a submission to the Government’s comprehensive ‘root and branch’ review of SafeWork SA by Mr John Merritt. The AIHS SA Branch represented by Kym Bills, Professor Dino Pinaniello, Valerie O’Keeffe and Nathan Winter met with Mr Merritt and subsequently drafted a detailed submission that included a recommendation about a new advisory committee to SWSA and proposed representation by AIHS.
The Merritt Review and the Government’s response accepted this recommendation as can be seen here. I was invited by the Minister to propose names for an AIHS member and alternate on the new committee. Dino Pisaniello (as Chair of the College of Fellows) and I discussed representation and proposed Craig and Valerie.
We are delighted that they have been selected and look forward to the work of the committee in advancing WHS in South Australia. There are now AIHS WHS representatives in three jurisdictions: Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia and hopefully other jurisdictions will soon follow.
Kind regards,
Kym Bills, FAIHS (Life), Chair AIHS SA Branch & SA Symposium