Intro/contact | What's new?/Recent Changes | Disclaimer | Acknowledgements
My name is Grea (pronunciation: rhymes with Thea) and I am a private citizen with an interest in OH&S and industrial issues. My approach in constructing this site is probably best summed up in this site's Disclaimer.
Click the following link to contact me. The email should automatically have a subject heading "OHSDatabaseFeedback". Please do not change this so I can identify your email as not being spam.
DISCLAIMER
This disclaimer has been written in plain English so you are more likely to read it and also because I don't think I should have to pay a lawyer over $A300 per hour to write one. Any lack of precision in language used is unintentional because I wish to cover my backside as much as the next person does. For legal purposes statements made in this disclaimer should be taken in the spirit in which they were intended rather than the letter of the law.
Accuracy: I've tried to make any information provided as accurate as possible at the time or writing but I cannot guarantee its accuracy.
The database simply provides (mostly NSW-oriented) OH&S information & links and isn't intended to be an authorative source, just an aid, which hopefully proves useful. It is entirely not-for-profit, run by a single person who finds these topics interesting and wants to be of help. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Of course I cannot take responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this database. And even if you did try to sue me you wouldn't get enough out of me to make it worth your while :-)
Associations: This site is not associated with any organisation whatsoever and I don't endorse any of the products provided via commercial links. If I provide a commercial link, it's because I think you may find the information handy to know. What you do with any of the information on this site is up to you.
Most of the websites this database links to have their own disclaimers that detail their own copyright & liabilities. If you are a litigious type, you should make sure you read them just in case there's a loophole you can exploit and use to make your fortune. You may also wish to contact the St James Ethics Centre and see if they can help you become a decent human being. On the other hand, if you are a person who takes responsibility for your actions and believe in fair play, it's your call whether you want to wade through their legalese or not.
As you may be aware, most disclaimers (including this one) basically say "We am trying to provide you with a service but we're letting you know that the information is not necessarily the gospel truth, so if you use the information and something goes wrong then you can't sue us because we've warned you".
Linking: Links are provided solely for the convenience of users of this site and I am not responsible for the information found through those links.
This site deep links to other sites. I do this because if I link to the home page of a site, then you have to struggle through their navigation and may not find the info you need.
However, deep linking means that it is possible that you are accessing incomplete information. The site I've linked to may contain information elsewhere that qualifies or augments the information found in the deep link, (if so, it could be due to illogical organisation / navigation on their site). I expect that such problems aren't the norm, but I have to say it because this is a disclaimer. After all, being hit by lightning isn't the norm either, but I won't tell you that it can't happen.
Some websites have policies stating that people must gain their approval to link to them. This is clearly nonsense. After all, isn't linking what the world wide web is all about? It is simply an attempt to control things over which they have no legal right.
There is a legitimate issue in relation to misrepesentation and linking. An example of a strict but sensible government site disclaimer and linking policy can be found on the NSW Attorney General Dept's website. I believe that the way I link to sites falls within their policies and is always done in good faith.
Legal limitations: At times I have linked to sections of legislation. Legal references can sometimes be problematical. You may find that section 1(b) of the XYZ Act tells you one thing, yet there may be qualifiers to that section in, say, Schedule 3 of the associated XYZ Regulation.
This is because people keep finding loopholes in legislation so extra bits need to be tacked on to close them. The result of this process is beautifully realised in NSW workers comp legislation, where you have a 1987 act, a 1998 act, a regulation, an amendment act of 2000, a further amendment act of 2000 and yet another further amendment act of 2001!
You could say that the kiddies keep trying to get their hands in the lolly jar and the grownups keep slapping the offending hands. The result is a convoluted mess which keeps lawyers in clover.
Summing up: Most of the time you will probably do fine with the info you find wither on this site or sites to which it has linked, especially those provided on government sites. However, bear in mind that legislation does vary from state to state and country to country.
Disclaimers are a little like lottery tickets - you won't generally expect bad things to happen from using info from reputable websites, but it's still possible, so you have to cover yourself.
One is tempted to say "just use your commonsense". However, we all know that commonsense is often overridden by pedantry and the manipulation of obvious truths once the legal system is involved. No doubt black can be proven to really be just a rather dark shade of white in the courts, with the lightness of the grey tone usually being directly proportional to a barrister's fee.
When in doubt, use your commonsense and seek alternative sources of information. Government sites are the most reliable sources, even though they can be poorly organised, written in beaurocri-speak, and can be slow to download because they've thrown in fancy code and large images in an attempt to appear corporate and professional. Also bear in mind that, due to politics, government sites sometimes deliberately withhold useful information.
Personally, I find the need to include a disclaimer distasteful, especially since I'm simply providing links and information in good will. However, we live in litigious times and you can't underestimate the capacity of some people to indulge in self-serving, unethical behaviour ... which has a lot to do with why a site like this exists at all ...
THIS SITE IS COPYRIGHT © GREA 2002-3-4
In Australia, as soon as a web page is published on the web it is immediately protected under federal copyright law. For further information see Creating websites & publishing on the Internet on the Australian Copyright Council website.
It is not legal to:
I will consider all not-for-profit requests to disseminate unique material that appears on this site.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
I have used a number of scripts and services in the making of this website, as follows:
· Search facility courtesy of Atomz Corporation (and additional functionality from Google site search)
· Anti spam email encrypting script - found via Anti spam Countermeasures page
· Bookmarking script courtesy of the Javascript Source
· Hit counter courtesy of Ace JavaScripts
· Background colour changer script courtesy of the JavaScript Source
I would also like to acknowledge friends who work, or have worked, at WorkCover NSW and the NSW ADB who have generously shared their encyclopaedic knowledge with me.