The West Australian government is leaving it to the state’s resources industry to investigate the potential for a register to prevent perpetrators of serious sexual harassment from working on different fly-in, fly-out worksites.

The register was a key recommendation made in the Enough is Enough report into sexual harassment against women on WA mine sites handed down by a parliamentary committee in June.

WA Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston.Credit:Tom Rovis-Hermann

The state government will table its responses in parliament on Wednesday.

Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston said the government supported, or supported in-principle, all 24 recommendations made by the inquiry, but distanced it from the register, which was directed at the resources industry.

“That’s a recommendation made by the committee to industry, it’s not a recommendation they’ve made to government,” he said.

Johnston said a register would be legally tricky to implement.

“We are interested to know how the industry will respond to that. I understand the challenges with that because there might be legal questions that industry can’t resolve,” he said.

“We’ve looked at legal pathways … for example, do it as a condition of getting a mining lease. The advice we have is that we can’t.”

The report was the culmination of months of testimony from victims, companies and regulators, revealing harrowing personal stories from women harassed and assaulted on mine sites as well as shocking failures to curb a deep-rooted problem in the sector.

The committee, chaired by opposition health spokeswoman Libby Mettam, accused companies of “corporate failure” and criticised the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety for inaction on the issue.

The government’s plan also included a code of practice for physical infrastructure on mine sites to improve safety.

“It will describe things like the quality, the doors, surveillance, response times, all those types of issues,” Johnston said.

The government has also boosted resources for WorkSafe to include more specialist skills in sexual harassment issues and will fund a community legal and advocacy service centre to provide free guidance and advice to affected West Australian FIFO workers.

Johnston also highlighted a triage service for workplace complaints that would be more attuned to victims of sexual abuse and harassment.

“The whole idea is to have a single point of entry to WorkSafe, so that people who feel threatened feel that they’ve been victimised can go to one location and then get the services that they require,” he said.

The government will introduce legislation early next year to change the definition of what constitutes sexual harassment, bringing it in line with other Australian jurisdictions.

Australian Workers Union WA secretary Brad Gandy, who had not yet seen the report, said the FIFO workforce deserved a substantial response.

“Anything less would be completely disrespectful to the victims who bravely came forward to participate in the inquiry,” he said.

“Unfortunately, a number of WA major mining companies still believe that they simply have a ‘branding and optics issue’ when in fact, they have an actual serious workplace health and safety issue that requires action not more words or a rebrand.

“Our expectations are that the WA Government’s response/report offers nothing less than complete respect, action and follow through to all workers within WA mining industry.”

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