Category: safety culture

Farmer who killed his three-year-old goes to jail

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?

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The 2024 WorkSafe Victoria Awards night

At the end of February 2025, WorkSafe Victoria held its annual awards night. The event met all of its requirements on the night—recognizing excellence and rewarding it—but it should also be a launching pad for innovation in occupational health and safety (OHS) and a media event in the broadest sense.

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Politics on display at safety awards night

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.

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OHS breakfast seminar without WorkSafe Victoria

The latest annual occupational health and safety (OHS) breakfast seminar by the Australian Institute of Health and Safety tried a different format with mixed success. These seminars have run almost continuously at the offices of Herbert Smith Freehills for a couple of decades, and perhaps a refresh was required, but there was one noticeable absence – Victoria’s OHS regulator, WorkSafe.

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Authentic selves, culture and racism

Culture has perhaps become the dominant theme in modern occupational health and safety (OHS). Possibly more dominant than Leadership. Culture remains an amorphous concept that is an inclusive adjective but also unhelpful.

Several recent events started making connections in my OHS brain that I am still working through:

  • Online racist statements by two Australian nurses
  • A Harvard Business Review Special Issue called “The Secrets of Great Culture” and
  • An article by Professor Lena Wang and others on the separation of work and life.
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This 2025 forecast offers mixed messaging

Risk and governance software company Navex published a forecast for 2025 which has some occupational health and safety (OHS) relevance.  It wrote “Rising temperatures in the workplace: Addressing civility concerns” which said

“Workplaces increasingly mirror the polarization we see in the world, with tensions surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, and political differences bubbling to the surface in workplace discord. Ideally, the workplace should be a collaborative environment, but now is a minefield of potential heated disagreements, making workplace civility a top priority for organizations.”

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New class action on sexual abuse in Australian mining

Many of the prominent Australian mining companies are in the process of changing their cultures to minimise the risk of sexual assaults and harassment after several recent damning inquiries into worker health and safety. Everyone seems to agree that cultural change can take a long time. I am not convinced.  Change will take time if one operates within the existing organisational and operational parameters and structures. But sometimes, the harm to workers is so great that a long time exacerbates unfairness and injustice.

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