One of the most difficult industries in which to achieve occupational health and safety (OHS) improvements is farming, especially in areas where farming continues to be done by small family units. The safety culture of farming is unique as the workplace is embedded in community and rural culture. Some people believe that OHS regulators have …
WorkSafe Victoria and its CEO Colin Radford have been pilloried by a couple of political and economic commentators recently, especially over the handling of the Hotel Quarantine Program. Radford and WorkSafe have wisely not reacted to the loudest voices and have continued their work investigating COVID19-related breaches of the occupational health and safety legislation. One …
The Australian newspaper is notoriously supportive of the conservative side of Australian politics, so it is little surprise that one of its business journalists, Robert Gottliebsen, is maintaining his advocacy for Industrial Manslaughter and occupational health and safety (OHS) prosecutions over COVID19-related infections, echoing many of the desires of Ken Phillips, the head of Self-Employed …
On May 19, 2020, WorkSafe Victoria conducted an interactive webinar on Workplace Manslaughter laws due to be in place from July 1, 2020. The webinar was very good for those who are coming to the issue anew as the level of interaction was excellent. But the webinar also broadened beyond its topic, which was disappointing. …
On January 23 2020, WorkSafe ACT released a curious safety alert. It was not about scaffolding, bushfire smoke, PPE, but about “safety systems on worksites”. It was not about things but about process....
More details of the “WorkSafe Tax” and WorkSafe Victoria’s new infringement notices and specialist construction inspectors emerged with the appearance of the Minister for Workplace Safety, Jill Hennessy, at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing on June 14 2019. Liberal Member of Parliament Richard Riordan went to town on the Minister. He opened with …
The Victorian Government released its State Budget on May 27, 2019. The Budget Papers include some references to occupational health and safety (OHS). Infringement Notices The Budget Papers state that new infringement notices will be available for WorkSafe Victoria to use. “Workplace safety will be improved through the introduction of infringement notices for a range …
