The ACT has accounted for 10 per cent of worksite deaths in the Australian construction industry in the past year, despite accounting for just 1.3 per cent of the national construction workforce.
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Tasmania, with a similar-sized workforce, had no deaths in the same period, as did South Australia, which makes up 7 per cent of the national workforce.
The ACT Greens cited the figures yesterday while announcing an almost $4 million plan to turn Canberra into Australia's ''work-safety capital''.
The party said it would raise an extra $2 million a year for workplace safety training by lifting the building and construction levy imposed on developers from 0.2 per cent to 0.3 per cent.
The construction union has welcomed the proposal, but the ACT Property Council accused the Greens of constantly trying to impose more charges on the building industry while simultaneously claiming they supported housing affordability.
Four ACT workers have died in less than 12 months, including the latest on a Kingston Foreshore site in July when 21-year-old Ben Catanzariti was killed by a concreting boom.
''Our vision must be to have no deaths on ACT work sites and we must commit to the funding and strategies that will achieve this,'' Greens Industrial Relations spokeswoman Amanda Bresnan said.
The Greens promised $500,000 for better inspections of government construction sites, which the party claimed would help prevent accidents and sham contracting and improve government procurement.
The party also committed $1.2 million over four years to establish a committee to tackle workplace bullying and to help WorkSafe ACT respond to bullying complaints.
Ms Bresnan said the proposed 0.1 per cent increase to the training levy was a small price to pay compared to the social and economic costs associated with a death on a work site.
''If you're looking at the average project, if it was $100,000 it would add $100 to its cost,'' she said.
''If it was $1 million it would add $1000.''
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union gave its support to the policy, saying it was long overdue. ACT branch secretary Dean Hall said safety laws were not being effectively enforced in the territory and the Greens policy could address the problem through worker training and more inspections of sites.
''Safety performance will be vastly improved because workers will be given the skills to not only perform safely but protect themselves and other workers,'' he said.
Workplace safety in the ACT had become too bogged down in paperwork at the expense of practical enforcement of safety laws.
But the ACT Property Council said sufficient funds for safety training were already available through the ACT Building and Construction Industry Training Fund Authority.
''There is no evidence that safety training is inadequate at the present time and there is no evidence that the current levy couldn't cover any training that may be required,'' executive director Catherine Carter said. ACT Industrial Relations Minister Chris Bourke said the Greens were announcing their policy before a government inquiry into workplace safety had even taken place.
