The Master Builders Association (MBA) says paper might just be the biggest hindrance to safety on Australia building sites.

MBA policy director Ian Markos has told News Corp that OHS inspectors spend more time dealing with mounds of paperwork than actually assessing risks.

“We’ve taken this focus away from looking and walking around, having discussions with workers, making sure they’re doing the right things and that they’re aware of what the requirements are and physically finding things before they cause trouble,” he said.

“Coupled with that you have inspectors that come out to the sites and it’s the first occasion they’ve set foot on a construction site.

“So how they can identify the impending collapse of a scaffold when they don’t even know what a scaffold is, I don’t know.”

Mr Markos was speaking after the death of worker Jorge Castillo-Riffo, who was crushed between a scissor lift and a concrete slab at the site of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

A former SafeWork SA investigator himself, Markos says things like risk assessments for simple equipment take more time than jobs they are needed for.

This could result in businesses spending more time creating safety policies than keeping on top of more serious hazards, he said.

“I’ve never seen somebody killed due to a missing paragraph in a policy,” Markos said.

“They seem to be taking away the focus from really high risk areas and they’re focusing on areas that I would call minor noncompliance issues and paperwork.

“It’s quite bizarre when you think about it. The focus is on; ‘have you got a safe work method statement?’.”

The MBA leader said government safety agencies have stopped taking on experienced former workers as OHS inspectors, and now use people trained only in safety bureaucracy.

“They were respected to the level that they would get invited back because every time they turned up they didn’t want to try and prosecute somebody, they wanted to give some advice on how to comply so they had the respect of the business community ... they had the expertise but that changed,” he said.

“They need to refocus, they need to get experienced inspectors and they need to make sure that they’re working with the business community.”

SafeWork SA has reportedly said that it would not accept that documentation for safety systems contributes to unsafe workplaces.

“Injury rates in the construction sector across the nation are declining in large part due to improved management systems adopted as industry best practice,” she said.

“The state’s work health and safety laws reflect what is accepted as an industry standard and SafeWork SA has met with industry representatives to identify, support and improve work practices.

“The Master Builders Association has not raised any of these matters in the SafeWork SA Advisory Council, of which it is a member, and there have been no direct representations to SafeWork SA on these issues.”