The Australia Institute is a progressive (Left-leaning) research institute that recently commemorated its 30th anniversary with a book called “What’s the Big Idea?” Contributors are compatible with the Institute’s ideologies, but some chapters overlap with occupational health and safety (OHS).
Recently, the Weekly Times reported* some disturbing statistics about farm-related deaths in Victoria. It summarised the AgHealth Australia data as:
“Farm deaths have doubled in the past 12 months, with vehicles the leading contributing factor, as farmers and authorities label the issue an emergency.
Seventy-two people died and there were 133 serious injuries in 2024, new AgHealth Australia data shows, up from 32 deaths in 2023 and 55 in 2022.
In Victoria, there were 16 deaths in 2024, up from seven in 2023.”
Recently former WorkSafe Victoria executive, Dr Narelle Beer, penned an article in LinkedIn called “Going to work should not kill you!” The article is a good introduction to occupational health and safety (OHS) but some important points are overlooked or unexplored.
Australia has learned much from its consideration of psychosocial factors that can generate psychological harm in workers over the last decade. By the end of 2025, all Australian jurisdictions will likely have re-emphasised the psychological elements of employers’ and workers’ occupational health and safety (OHS) duties. However, the legislative changes are likely to fail to improve workers’ mental health because at least one of those psychosocial factors is too confronting and uncomfortable to employers.
At the end of February 2025, a farmer in England was jailed for 12 months following a successful prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive. In 2022, the farmer, Neil Speakman, drove over his three-year-old son, Albie, in a telehandler that Speakman was not qualified to use and had restricted visibility. Speakman was jailed after he failed to ensure the health and safety of his son.
If this type of incident had happened in Australia, it is uncertain whether a farmer would receive a custodial sentence because the community may feel that the farmer and their family would have “been punished enough” by the loss of their child. Why can England do what Australia resists?
My great uncle dug into coal mine tailings with his bare hands to try and rescue the school children and teachers buried during the Aberfan disaster. His own grandchildren died. Both of my grandfathers suffered from lives spent underground; they both died young, one from lung cancer and silicosis.
For me, all safety is political. It always has been. It’s not party-political – but it can be. It’s political in the sense that all decisions in every aspect of our lives are a function of power and authority.
WorkSafe Vcitoria’s annual awards night for 2024 was held last week. It was an unexceptional night, with around 400 in the audience, most of whom were award finalists and their colleagues. Although unexceptional, it was not dull, as the finalists’ stories were often compelling. However, the event needs a boost. Perhaps not to the flamboyance of earlier this century with over 1000 attendees and dancing into the night, as that would not be a good political look, but it needs something.
What was not notable was the politics of the evening.
