Abstract: . . .  for example, national standards are arguably unsuitable for the needs of State and Territory jurisdictions… There are problems in applying such standards in workplaces, and few projects aimed at reducing rates of occupational illness and injury are of use in workplaces. State and Territory governments are not fully and promptly implementing decisions agreed at the national level, particularly standards declared by WorkSafe (Johnstone, pp 153)” Page 27 8 th ANNUAL SIA CONFERENCE ANA Hotel - Gold Coast Page 11 To improve the validity and relevance of available data to assist policy-making, efforts were made to classify and categorise information by building upon existing database systems. For example, the National Data Set which consists primarily of coronial files, was integrated with other data collections such as: • National Coronial Information System (NCIS) • Hospital in-patient discharge data • Information from general practitioners • Emergency department presentation data; • Routine surveys by the Australian Bureau of Statistics; and • Data collected by State and Territory OHS authorities (Driscoll and Mandryk, 1999) In 1997, NHOSC published some of the first reports in the area of CPM (Johnstone, pp 158). In association with the Departments of Labour Standing Committee working group, NOHSC drafted a system of performance monitoring for OHS and workers’ compensation in all jurisdictions. Priorities included “supporting an effective national infrastructure through the provision of comprehensive and accurate national data” (Johnstone, pp 158). Such priorities acknowledge the need to adequately identify factors which influence OHS performance prior to commencing intervention, particularly intervention involving cooperation among jurisdictions. The issue of states gaining exemption from implementing national standards due to economic reasons has attracted minimal attention, and would benefit from studies which identify any OHS implications. SOCIO-ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES Data within acceptable confidence intervals for basic OHS trends analysis has been available since 1992. Since then, the need for data which is more comprehensive and easy to access has increased. In July this year, NOHSC released its long-awaited on-line database for extracting detailed and relatively recent information regarding OHS (http://nohsc.info.au.com). This database can rapidly identify patterns of work-related injury and illness over time, across industries and jurisdictions. This resource would benefit policy-making at all levels. Simple quantitative measures alone however, are insufficient for benchmarking or analysing performance. Inspection frequency rates for example, within a particular jurisdiction may appear similar between states, but on a population ratio basis be vastly different. New models which integrate various performance indicators are required from organisational through to national levels. On the macro-level, CPM of this nature would also assist policy- . . .
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