Australia is accumulating a considerable body of knowledge about safety cultures in workplaces. Sadly most of the information comes from inquiries into disasters that involve multiple fatalities. The UK has its body of knowledge from oil-rig explosions and train crashes. Australia’s is predominantly from mining disasters, gas plant explosions and, also, train crashes. Now according … Continue reading “Australia military and safety culture”
Bill Calcutt makes some excellent points about the consultative strategy used by the Australian government in its recent 2020 summit. The summit showed that this government had differentiated itself from the previous conservative one through “transparent evidence-based decision making” and a wide consultative base, even though the guests were selected. Sadly, I am not sure …
In August 2007 the Australian equestrian industry was struck by its first-ever outbreak of Equine Influenza (EI). The Federal Government’s report on the incident has been released and has significant lessons for several reasons. Australia has been proud of its biosecurity and customs service for decades. As an island nation at the end of the … Continue reading “Another safety culture disaster in Australia”
One of the main reasons that the Safety Institute of Australia included a single conference stream on CEOs recently was so that OHS professionals could gain an insight into CEO perspective – to hear from the horses’ mouths. In a question and answer session after his presentation, Jerry Ellis said “Regulatory requirements are not the …
The Safety institute of Australia has tried a different approach with their 2008 safety conference on April 29. It’s first day was dominated by a single stream of CEOs and senior executives talking about how they see safety. I expected a day of cliches but these were refreshingly minimal. There were a few mentions of … Continue reading “Safety in Action Conference Report – Day One”