NT Introduce Industrial Manslaughter Including Life Imprisonment

The Northern Territory Government has introduced an Amendment Bill that creates a WHS offence of industrial manslaughter, including a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Earlier this year, a damning review of the NT’s workplace health and safety practices found it to have the highest rate of workplace deaths per capita in the country.

NT WorkSafe said the industrial manslaughter offence would ensure all businesses, regardless of the business size, faced the same level of penalty if reckless or negligent conduct caused a workplace fatality.

Currently, individuals can be charged with manslaughter for a workplace fatality under the Northern Territory’s Criminal Code. This means an individual operating a small business as a sole trader, in a partnership or trustee of a trust can face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

However, there is currently no equivalent penalty for a body corporate under the Criminal Code and the maximum fine currently for a body corporate under the Act is $3 million for a Category 1 offence.

The new laws would change this – the maximum penalty for an individual is imprisonment for life whether the individual is prosecuted under the existing or new manslaughter offence.

And for a body corporate, the maximum penalty is 65,000 penalty units ( currently $10,075,000 under the 2019-20 penalty unit rate).

Under the laws, a person commits the offence of industrial manslaughter if:

(a) the person has a health and safety duty; and

(b) the person intentionally engages in conduct; and

(c) the conduct breaches the health and safety duty and causes the death of an individual to whom the health and safety duty is owed; and

(d )the person is reckless or negligent about the conduct breaching the health and safety duty and causing the death of that individual.

However, the new industrial manslaughter offence does not impose any additional duties. The introduction of the offence affects available penalties for breaches, not existing safety duties.