A battle is brewing over work safety prosecutions in Canberra, 10 years on from the death of a young worker, whose family says it has never seen justice.
Yesterday, WorkSafe ACT released a review of the territory's prosecution of workplace incidents, making a number of recommendations, including conviction targets.
The recommendations were made public exactly 10 years after the death of 21-year-old Ben Catanzariti, who was killed when a concrete boom fell on him at a Kingston worksite.
His case has been controversial since prosecutors dropped criminal charges against the boom owner, Schwing Australia, after competing expert reports emerged.
The ACT's current top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, said the incident was a complete tragedy, but he would also have had to drop the case.
"I totally agree with the narrative that everyone has a right to go to work and come home safely," he said.
However, he said, the three reports regarding the case were at odds with a successful conviction.
Review recommends conviction targets and greater transparency
ACT Work Safety Commissioner Jaqueline Agius said she was hoping the recommendations from the review of prosecutions would change the way matters were handled.
At present, all prosecutions are handled by the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ACT DDP).
That model would consist of a small, in-house prosecutions team, but would still see industrial manslaughter cases going to the DPP.
The commissioner would also be able to seek outside legal help.
Other recommendations provide for greater transparency, more careful record-keeping and a target for convictions.
However, Mr Drumgold, as ACT DPP, said that was not an ideal model.
"The problem is you are duplicating work and you are losing the accumulated knowledge that you get from having all of the prosecutions in a central location, such as the DPP work safety team," he said.
The DPP has a seven-member team working in the area.
Mr Drumgold said some incidents might cut across several criminal acts, as well as work safety laws.
Mr Drumgold said a key issue for justice was that prosecutors needed to be completely independent "of government interests" and of "investigator bias" as well as interest group pressure.
He was also concerned about the discussion of targets.
"It is very unsafe to set targets for prosecutions," Mr Drumgold said.
And, he said, the choice of outside lawyers could be fraught.
"You effectively lose control of the prosecution [and] you lose accumulated knowledge and accumulated expertise and … it's much more expensive to brief external counsel who, again, don't have the accumulated expertise of the issues that raise their head in work safety matters," Mr Drumgold said.
Family of Ben Catanzariti receives apology
Ms Agius said some of the recommendations were matters of policy for the ACT government, which has yet to be handed the report.
"I will be taking that review to the Work Health and Safety Council, and the Work Health and Safety Council will decide whether to promote that review and recommend that the ACT government adopt those recommendations," Ms Agius said.
However, she said, other measures would be put in place, including building expertise in the organisation, and tracking prosecutions more effectively.
A memorial service for Mr Catanzariti was held yesterday, with members of his family in attendance.
At the service, Ms Agius took the opportunity to apologise to the Catanzariti family, particularly his mother, Kay.
Ms Catanzariti is continuing her battle with authorities to develop better safety laws.
However, she said, she was grateful for the acknowledgement.
"Naturally, what we want — or wanted — was accountability for Ben's death, but having that apology has helped," Ms Catanzariti said.
