The military dictum that generals are to be found fighting the last war may find its echo in the area of the regulation of occupational risks, in the fact that regulatory regimes and approaches often appear to be structured to the needs of an earlier economic and technological structure. This includes the celebrated turning point in Anglo-Australian occupational health and safety regulation, the 1972 Robens Report. There is some irony in this fact, for the Robens Committee of Inquiry was set up by the British Government, in 1970, precisely because of concerns that the traditional system, based upon the framework of the nineteenth century British Factory Acts, was too rigid and complex and unable to keep pace with social, economic and technological change. The Robens Report response was that, in place of the traditional approach of legislative provisions, supplemented by regulations, mandating detailed minimum safety standards, which were enforced by an independent inspectorate, there should be a move in the direction of promotion of an “effectively self-regulating system”.
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