Contents
Contents
Contents ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Background .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. 5 Executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 6 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 About Safe Work Australia ....................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Background .............................................................................................................................. 11 1.3 The case for government intervention ...................................................................................... 12 1.4 Objectives of government intervention ...................................................................................... 12 1.5 Purpose and scope of this Decision Regulation Impact Statement ........................................... 12 1.6 Structure of this Decision RIS ................................................................................................... 13
2 Statement of the problem ................................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Defining the problem ................................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Engineered stone – unique hazards .......................................................................................... 15 2.3 Duties under the WHS legal framework .................................................................................... 17 2.4 Inadequate levels of compliance in the engineered stone industry ........................................... 19 2.5 The nature of the engineered stone industry ............................................................................ 23 2.6 Silicosis disease onset and profile differs in engineered stone workers .................................... 23 2.7 Problem statement summary .................................................................................................... 26
3 What policy options are being considered ? ...................................................................................... 27 3.1 Overview .................................................................................................................................. 27 3.2 Base case ................................................................................................................................ 27 3.3 Option 1 : Prohibition on the use of all engineered stone ........................................................... 27 3.4 Option 2 : Prohibition on the use of engineered stone containing 40 % or more crystalline silica 28
3.5 Option 3 : As for Option 2 , with an accompanying licensing scheme for PCBUs working with engineered stone containing less than 40 % crystalline silica ............................................................... 28
4 What is the likely impact of the options ?........................................................................................... 29 4.1 Overview of approach .............................................................................................................. 29 4.2 Overview of industry ................................................................................................................. 32 4.3 Overview of monetised costs .................................................................................................... 33 4.4 Option 1 monetised costs ......................................................................................................... 35 4.5 Option 2 monetised costs ......................................................................................................... 38 4.6 Option 3 monetised costs ......................................................................................................... 40
DECISION REGULATION IMPACT STATEMENT Prohibition on the use of engineered stone Page 2 of 107