2006 – March – Robinson – Common Law Safety Cases

Richard M Robinson, BE BA FIEAust MSFPE Director, R2A Pty Ltd statutory, regulatory and common law obligations have been met. It is primarily a demonstration that all sensible practicable precautions are in place. This means that target risk levels are not strictly relevant. Legally at least, if a business or activity is prohibitively 'dangerous' then it must be stopped. Otherwise the common law principle, the balance of the significance of the risk versus the effort required to reduce it, applies. As such, 'risk' is only invoked to test the value of the possible precautions, rather than the significance of the 'hazard'