Chapter 10: The nature of OHS offences – General features
In this chapter, we discuss and make recommendations about the nature of offences relating to duties of care under the model Act. We conclude that such offences should be criminal, not civil, that there should be a consistent focus on risk and culpability in the offences, not merely on the outcome of a breach of a duty and that, as now, such offences should be ‘absolute liability’ offences, subject to the inclusion of the qualifiers on the duty that we recommend earlier.
The criminal or civil nature of offences relating to duties of care
