Barry Naismith, through his OHSIntros organisation, has released his latest independent report into the performance of WorkSafe Victoria and occupational health and safety (OHS) more generally. Naismith’s contribution is a fresh context on Victoria’s safety and health regulator, and it is an excellent reminder of the prominent issues in the previous 12 months....
Earlier this years SafetyAtWorkBlog wrote about accusations of a conspiracy between WorkSafe Victoria, Victoria Police, and construction company McConnell Dowell, made by a trade union radio program “The Concrete Gang“. The accusations have been mentioned in mainstream media. SafetyAtWorkBlog has obtained more details of the incident....
This week Safe Work Australia commenced another round of public consultation on the recommendations of the Boland Report. There was no hint of this at last week’s WHS Prosecution and Enforcement Conference. That conference had no speaker from SWA but it did have Marie Boland as a keynote speaker, and even she made no mention …
The Weekly Times newspaper has provided strong coverage of the arguments about quad bike safety for many years, especially, through the work of Fiona Myers and Peter Hunt. The June 19, 2019 edition devoted its front page, page 4, an opinion piece and a cartoon to the objection by the quad bike manufacturers to Operator …
This week Melbourne Victoria hosted a conference about Work Health and Safety Prosecutions and Enforcement. The two-day conference, run by Criterion Conferences, focused on law and the application of that law. Occupational health and safety (OHS) was largely a subtext of the discussion, but it raised its head occasionally. The audience of around 100 consisted …
Discussions about the work-related risks of glyphosate exposure have calmed down until the next court case but it is useful to remember that there have been battles in the past about exposure to agricultural chemicals. Questions in the Western Australian Parliament on 13 June 2019, illustrate the situation in relation to one chemical – 2, …
SafeWorkSA’s CEO, Martyn Campbell, is fast becoming the highest profile occupational health and safety (OHS) regulator in Australia, partly because he has committed to communicating with stakeholders. Recently on the SafetyOnTap podcast Campbell, spoke about non-paper-based compliance. Given the current attention to safety clutter by David Provan and Greg Smith, his comments deserve some brief …