The ACT Government has contracted researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to examine whether or not the safety culture on Canberra's buildings sites has improved since a key review in 2012.
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As part of Worksafe ACT's wider response to the Getting Home Safely report, the territory government has commissioned RMIT to complete a six-month, $147,712 investigation of the "safety culture" on the city's construction sites.
The original review was ordered after a series of horrific deaths on building sites around the ACT and while Worksafe ACT, industry and unions have been trying to improve safety, Canberra's long-term serious injury rate has gone backwards since the report.
Tender documents show the RMIT contract was signed in February this year for completion by May as part of the wider review of building industry safety and culture due by July.
An ACT government spokeswoman said the RMIT researchers would evaluate safety culture in the industry, "identify barriers to driving work health and safety" and give the government a set of "baseline safety culture measures that can be used for future trend analysis and evaluation".
"The timeline for finalising the review is subject to the findings of the RMIT research, its consideration by the expert construction safety advisory group and that group's development of informed recommendations about future construction safety initiatives," she said.
A report of the entire review would be given to Minister for Workplace Safety Rachel Stephen-Smith once it is completed.
