Contemporary Matters
10.00-10.30 Morning Tea
10.30-11.00
Change: Are your Safety Systems Nimble or Numb?
Mary-Ann Camp, Director,
Streamlined Safety & Sustainability Pty Ltd
Uncertain financial times give an added impetus for organisations to develop safety processes and systems that are nimble - streamlined, efficient and capable of responding to change.
This presentation will provide participants with strategies to recognise and leverage aspects of their existing safety processes and culture that are working well and streamline less effective aspects.
11.00-11.30
Getting People to Say Yes! When The Would Normally Say No!
Lindsay Adams, Director, Teamocracy
In the long-term, you’ll benefit from this program through an improved ability to understand your people better and assist them to adapt to change and long term improvement within your organisation. You will understand why most change processes fail in getting alignment and getting people on board and sharing the organisation’s vision and goals.
11.30-12.00
Making Sense of Plant & Equipment Safety
Matthew Turner, Director, Plant Assessor
Plant Assessor has set out to research plant safety management and develop a simple Plant Safety Management Model that anyone can use. The objective of the Plant Safety Management Model is to help owners; operators and industry safety professionals simplify plant safety systems and make these systems more effective.
12.00-12.30
OHS Governance Systems: A Critical Review of One Organisation's Processes
Susanne Tepe & Elise Robinson, Senior Safety
Advisor, RMIT University & Student, Rio Tinto
This body of work uses Action Research principles to evaluate the governance processes implemented in an engineering, infrastructure and services organization. Governance processes included establishment of Minimum Safety Standards, development of a self-assessment tool to assess compliance, implementation of an internal auditing program to confirm the selfassessment, and development, collection and dissemination of an OHS performance reporting tool.
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-2.30
Hazard Communication Under GHS and WHS
Richard Greenwood, Senior Consultant,
Noel Arnold & Associates
Amongst all the other changes contained in the Work Health and Safety Legislation, a completely new system of Chemical Classification is being introduced into workplaces. What are the grey areas, what are the sources of confusion, and what is the person with the exploding chest all about? Take a guided tour through the Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, as adapted to Australian conditions.
2.30-3.00
Fatigue Risk Management - Past Present and Future
Michael Adeney, Psychologist, Fatigue Safety
This presentation will cover key lessons learned in implementing fatigue risk management systems across Australia and provide practical approaches for getting good results with your fatigue management plan.
3.00-3.30
Fitness For Duties - Advising Employers On How to Obtain Medical Evidence and Ensuring Legal Compliance
Phillip Duffy & Rob Jackson
Both: Principal, Macpherson + Kelley
This presentation will advise Employers on their obligations under Sections 21 and 22 of the Occupational Health & Safety Act (Vic) 2004 and how these obligations relate to an employer’s obligations under the Fair Work Act, disability discrimination law and workers’ compensation. It will include advice regarding obtaining medical reports subject to Legal Professional Privilege and an overview of appropriate advice to ensure effective management of employers’ obligations.
3.30-4.00 Afternoon Tea
Managing Legislative Change
10.00-10.30 Morning Tea
10.30-11.00
Legal Vice - Lawyers and Safety (Sometimes Oil and Water)
Andrew Douglas, Principal, Macpherson + Kelley
The change in the legislative environment around work, health and safety, the difficulties associated with post-recession economics and increased activity of safety regulators has caused many businesses to develop defensive safety plans.
Safety leadership needs engagement with all key stakeholders. It is time for business to shun the defensive safety clock tailored by many lawyers and embrace engagement.
11.00-11.30
Addressing Work Health and Safety Upstream - Lessons From Research
Dr Liz Bluff, Research Fellow, National Research
Centre for OHS Regulation, Australian National University
This paper presents empirical research examining how Australian firms that design and manufacture workplace machinery and equipment address work health and safety matters, and the factors shaping their responses.
11.30-12.00
Directors and Due Diligence in Workplace Safety
Neil Foster, Senior Lecturer,
Newcastle Law School, University of Newcastle, NSW
The duties of directors and other company officers under s 27 of the model Work Health and Safety Act will be explored, along with related duties. Issues considered will be: what level of company officer will be caught by the legislation?
How will volunteer officers, and officers of nonprofit organisations, be dealt with? What are the courts likely to consider as “due diligence”? This question will be considered both in terms of the Act and published guidance, but also against
the background of previous court decisions on the concept in the workplace safety area and elsewhere.
12.00-12.30
Lessons Learned in Transitioning Organisations To The Work Health and Safety Act
Barry Sherriff, Partner, Norton Rose Australia
The Work Health and Safety Act and regulations have commenced operation and the practical reality of compliance is now being pursued. In this paper Barry Sherriff will discuss the various approaches adopted by and with organisations from SMEs through to large corporations to manage the change process, his experiences of the most commonly encountered traps and barriers and the areas consistently found to require attention.
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-2.30
To Be Confirmed
2.30-3.00
An After Action Review of the WHS Laws
LTCOL Sean Faulkner, Department of Defence
How does an organisation transition to the new WHS laws? Better still, how does a large, complex, high-risk organisation transition to the new WHS laws? Learn how the Australian Defence Force prepared for the recent changes and gain an insight into the early issues and challenges that they faced. Did the Australian Defence Force finally find a ‘silver bullet’ and what lessons are there for other organisations?
3.00-3.30
Global Trends in Legislation and Accident Investigations: Where Are We Now and What Do We Still Have to Learn?
Gerard Forlin QC, Queen’s Counsel
This presentation will look at a number of jurisdictions and industries across the world.
It will look at a series of industrial accidents to see what actually happened and what has been put in place since the accident and, in particular, it will look at rail, air and nuclear incidents.
It will also examine what other improvements need to be made in the aftermath of these disasters. This presentation will also look at various legislative changes that have occurred recently in a number of jurisdictions.
3.30-4.00 Afternoon Tea
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
10.00-10.30 Morning Tea
10.30-11.00
Using Scenarios as An Active And Engaging Method Of Learning From Incidents
Emily Novatsis, Senior Human Factors Advisor,
Woodside Energy
Many organisations in the process industries seek to improve how they learn and embed lessons from incidents. Yet we hear less from such organisations on trialling novel learning methods in search of better ways to learn from incidents. This paper describes a project that used an engaging and interactive method to help personnel learn lessons from previous isolation incidents.
11.00-11.30
Quad Bikes - When Will Manufacturers Rollover on Crush Protection Devices?
Tony Lower, Director, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health & Safety
Quad bikes now have the dubious distinction of being the leading mechanism of non-intentional farm injury deaths in Australia. Data indicates that approximately half of all fatalities are the result of the vehicle rolling which has led to continued calls for improvements in design, including the introduction of crush protection devices to reduce fatalities and serious injuries in the event of a rollover. However, these requests have been repeatedly ignored and challenged by the quad bike manufacturers who have preferred to focus on low-order control measures such as training and PPE. This presentation details the tactics adopted by the industry despite mounting evidence supporting the efficacy of crush protection devices.
11.30-12.00
Use Of Social Media in The Victorian Floods
Christine Walker, Managing Director,
Alliance Strategic Research
The Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner and the SES were interested to understand the role social media played in the floods for residents and the people of Victoria. Specifically the questions were: Is social media being used? What is being said? How do emergency services need to respond? This was the first time such an event had been analysed, and some guidelines for the use of social media in a crisis event were developed.
12.00-12.30
Rear Focus - Forward Looking: Fatality Prevention
Angelica Vecchio-Sadus, HSE Leader,
CSIRO Process Science & Engineering
After a fatality in December 2001 where a staff member asphyxiated in an airlock to a liquid nitrogen cool room, CSIRO implemented management systems and delivered strategic and targeted operational programs to identify high HSE risk. A decade later, even though the strategies are practised, the potential for serious injury or even a fatality still remains. This presentation will describe some of the high-risk incidents that have occurred, process changes over 10 years, and how the lessons learnt can
inform safer work practices into the future.
12.30-2.00 LUNCH
2.00-2.30
Modifying Behaviour Through Clever Design
David McStavrick & John Tregambe,
Operations Manager, AMP Capital Shopping Centres & Senior Partner, Push Safety
AMP Capitals Shopping Centre Division manage 30 shopping centres which include over 160 common and tenant controlled loading docks.
These vary greatly creating a significant degree of complexity when it comes to finding general safety solutions to reduce risk. Loading dock plans with documented controls have been drawn up for many docks and some works have been implemented with some encouraging early results, demonstrating a 50% reduction in pedestrian traffic.
2.30-3.00
A Retrospective Analysis of Work Related Deaths in the Australian Construction Industry
Tracy Cooke, Property Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Campus
A retrospective analysis of ‘construction work-related’ deaths recorded in the NCIS (The National Coronial Information System) is presented. Applying an accident causation model developed by Loughborough University to the data, causes of death in the Australian construction industry are identified. Limitations inherent in the data and recommendations for systematic collection of data based upon systemic models of accident causation are made.
3.00-3.30
Can We Meet?
Norm Winn, Principal, Norm Winn & Associates
This will present an overview of corporate managers’ accountabilities to staff and the community with regard to compliance with Regulations and AS3745 [2010] – Planning for Emergencies in Facilities. The effectiveness of Emergency Response Preparedness is measured during an emergency when all occupants are evacuated safety – due to the emergency plan being in place and regular training being conducted.
3.30-4.00 Afternoon Tea