Evaluating the Harmonisation of Australia's OHS Laws: Challenges and Opportunities
The Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration Vol. 32, No. 2 (December 2010): 125-136
35 Pages Posted: 1 May 2013 Last revised: 25 Nov 2013
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
This article examines three significant and increasingly important public policy issues: OHS, harmonisation and evaluation. OHS is an issue on which comparatively little has been written in public administration journals, yet it is an issue from which much can be learned – especially about the intersection between social and economic policy. In this regard, the harmonisation of Australia’s OHS laws provides a valuable opportunity to evaluate and better understand the benefits and costs of the harmonisation of social regulation in the name of economic efficiency. However, any such evaluation would be challenging, with the already difficult job of evaluation complicated by a multiplicity of stakeholders and objectives. This article examines the challenges these multiple objectives held by multiple stakeholders presents for evaluation, and is so doing demonstrates that far from being interpreted simply as difficulties to be overcome, they actually represent an opportunity to enhance both the legitimacy of the evaluation process and the utility of its outcomes.
Keywords: Evaluation, OHS, Occupational health and safety, Harmonisation, Stakeholders
JEL Classification: H77, K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation