Category: penalties

A Localised Reassessment of Common Sense

“Common Sense” is a concept all occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals must address, but that doesn’t mean it’s static. My six months on Norfolk Island provided me with a new perspective.

In several blog articles on “common sense”, I found the concept a deeply unreliable foundation for OHS because it is subjective, dismissive, and routinely used to defend and mask harmful organisational habits. As one article notes,

“Common Sense often seems to be the way I think or the way I do something – ‘It’s just common sense’”,

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What Cobb’s New Book Reveals About Leadership, Culture and Psychosocial Risk

Every book by Ellen Pinkos Cobb deserves close attention, as her perspective and approach to examining sexual harassment and psychosocial hazards in the workplace are unique and valuable. Her new book, “The Global Evolution of Bullying, Harassment, and Discrimination Laws” is a great addition to one’s library.

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WorkSafe Victoria’s Evolving Regulatory Message on Mental Health

Across her 2024 and 2026 appearances at the Psych Health and Safety Conference, WorkSafe Victoria’s Amy Salmon’s message about psychosocial regulation in Victoria has shifted from explaining that psychosocial and psychological obligations exist to showing how compliance works in real life. The shift is subtle but important. In 2024, she was still fighting the battle of psychosocial legitimacy, pushing back against employers waiting for “the regs,” while by 2026 she was focused on operational detail, inspector capability and what reasonable compliance looks like in real workplaces.

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20th Anniversary of Significant Workplace Bullying Fatality

I am old enough to remember the work-related suicide of Brodie Panlock in 2006, meaning this year is the 20th anniversary. Her death, the findings of the Victorian Coroner and the prosecution by WorkSafe Victoria are pivotal to how workplace bullying and mental health at work are seen and managed today. But there is a generation of young workers who may be unaware of her case.

This series of articles trace that failure of prevention across three stages: the immediate OHS significance of the Café Vamp prosecution, the public and legal response through Brodie’s Law and national inquiries, and the continuing relevance of psychosocial hazard prevention under modern OHS duties.

The articles are based on the original SafetyAtWorkBlog articles from 2010 onwards. Today, here is a brief reminder of what Brodie Panlock experienced.

Please note that this article and those following discuss suicide and mental trauma.

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These Boots Are Made For Working

Several Australian politicians made public statements on or related to April 28, 2026, which is either International Workers Memorial Day or the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, depending on your political preference. The International Labor Organisation’s theme for the day was psychosocial harms. Curiously, very few of the politicians mentioned this theme in their statements, and the Federal Minister for Workplace Relations has made no public media statement about the day!!

So what did and didn’t they say?

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A Workplace Death. An Upheld Conviction. And a Standard Every C-Suite Officer Should Understand.

A post written by Wade Needham (April 15, 2026), and reproduced with permission.

Two judgments totaling 75,000 words were handed down across 2024 and 2026. Not everyone will read them. Everyone should understand what they establish.

Years ago, during commissioning work at Port Hedland for the Roy Hill project, someone asked me how I knew the night shift crew were following the isolation procedure for livening the sub stations. I could name the critical risk. I could point to the training records, the procedure, the sign-off sheet, the safety advisor on shift. And when they asked how I knew it was being followed at 2am when nobody was watching, I paused. Long pause. Then I said something like “Well, the reports don’t show any issues.”

I have never forgotten that pause. Because I knew, in that moment, that I was describing paperwork. Not reality.

That is the most dangerous sentence in safety governance. The reports don’t show any issues. It is the sentence that sat underneath everything that went wrong at the Port of Auckland. I wanted to distil down elements of the judgement I found insightful.

But first, a too-long, don’t-want-to-read summary for those short on time.

Continue reading “A Workplace Death. An Upheld Conviction. And a Standard Every C-Suite Officer Should Understand.”

OHS Reform: The Allan Government’s Best Chance to Rebuild Trust

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is rarely addressed in election campaigns, and the Victorian election in November is likely no exception. However, there are OHS issues that need to be discussed and addressed, and there may also be a political advantage.

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