There is strong support from industry, unions and other interested persons for the Crown having the same liability as other duty holders.
Discussion
It is now widely accepted that the Crown should not be exempt from the operation of the offence provisions of OHS legislation.
As the ALRC has pointed out, there are rule of law considerations:353
“The principle is widely accepted that governments, as representatives of the people, should be subject to the same laws as the people, unless Parliament provides otherwise.”
The ALRC nonetheless acknowledged that governments differ from ordinary persons in key respects and the Parliament may choose to exempt the Crown where that appeared warranted.354
We do not see why the common law presumption to which the Commonwealth has referred should justify the model law making special provision for immunity for the Crown in right of any jurisdiction, when the removal of such immunity from others has produced no difficulties.
