Category: technology

Compliance is Not Safety and Data is Not Wisdom

In the 1990s, there was a significant discussion about “Big Data”. Organisations had begun working digitally due to rapid technological growth and the digitisation of historical records. But the data was so large at the time that its usefulness was questionable. Big Data was of only historical and archival importance until artificial intelligence (AI) tools were developed. Now organisations can turn their Big Data into commercial products and services. International law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer may be a model of the future.

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“She simply had too much work to do” – WorkSafe Awards 2025

Psychological safety dominated the 2025 WorkSafe Victoria Awards held in late February 2026. (At somepoint, WorkSafe is going to have to bring the awards back to the Safety Month schedule of October) This is perhaps not surprising, as psychological safety and psychosocial hazards remain hot issues in Victoria, but some other important finalists shone.

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Waiting for Leaders Who Actually Believe in OHS Reform

Canada’s Institute for Work & Health (IWH) has produced a bold forecast of the future of occupational health and safety (OHS) in its new report, “Work & health 2040: Anticipating changes impacting the futures of occupational health and safety”. The seven trends identified are not greatly surprising. Change is needed to address these trends, but who should, and how to, make the changes is unclear.

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Someone should have read the instructions – OHS in COVID times

Ask someone to depict occupational health and safety (OHS) in a drawing, and the image is likely to include a hard hat, maybe some safety glasses, or hearing protection. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) dominates the concept of OHS and how people perceive OHS, even when PPE is the last hazard control option to be considered in providing safe and healthy work.

Our relationship with PPE has forever been changed by everyone’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survivors of the pandemic are loath to reflect on those few intense years, but OHS needs to talk about the pandemic and what went right and what went wrong. Here’s a short start to the conversation.

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Beyond Compliance, Rethinking Safety Culture and Legal Reform

Earlier this week, I was a panellist at an occupational health and safety symposium organised by the Victorian Branch of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety. We were asked to be challenging and provocative in our perspectives on the evolution of OHS and OHS law in Victoria since the start of the century.

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