20th Anniversary of Significant Workplace Bullying Fatality
I am old enough to remember the work-related suicide of Brodie Panlock in 2006, meaning this year is the 20th anniversary. Her death, the findings of the Victorian Coroner and the prosecution by...
View ArticleWhen Productivity Reform Stops at the Easy Bits
Regarding free access to some Australian Standards, an astute reader pointed me to a previous SafetyAtWorkBlog article from March 2023 and connected Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ 2026 Budget papers more...
View ArticleAustralian Advice for Eliminating Psychological Harm at Work
It still surprises me that treating work‑related mental harm as something prevented through job design, rather than as a personal failing, is seen as a revelation. Humans are infinitely variable, if...
View ArticleRethinking Workers Compensation for Self-Employed Australians
My small- and micro-business clients have often asked whether they are covered by workers’ compensation insurance even if they do not pay a workers’ compensation premium. The easy answer is, it...
View Article“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)...
View ArticleWhat the new push for Australian values means for work
Every company seems to have a Mission Statement, a Values Statement, or something similar that all employees are expected to follow and comply with. Largely, these are aspirational statements, but they...
View ArticleAgriculture Has the Injuries of a Regulated Industry, But Not the Regulation
Over the past few months, I have increasingly encountered the term “regulated industries” in the context of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. In OHS in Australia, these industries seem...
View ArticleWorkSafe Victoria’s Wake Up Call on Psychosocial Hazards
WorkSafe Victoria has just concluded a Safe Work Month webinar on psychosocial hazards and psychological risks, attended by around 14,000. The content was familiar to anyone who has been following the...
View ArticleOHS Law Was Meant to Empower, Not Excuse
Australian occupational health and safety (OHS) laws require employers to be compliant with their OHS duties, but also allow the flexibility for employers to determine their own level of compliance....
View ArticleInside the Room Where Safety Happens
There are several ways to write about Safe Work Australia’s recent Research Summit. This is the first article and will discuss a couple of features of the summit and ask if the summit achieved its...
View ArticleMore OHS voices needed
A new discussion paper from Safe Work Australia (SWA) is interesting in a curious way. Its purpose is confusing, and its final report will not be presented until mid-2026. SWA offers no definition of...
View ArticleGood Safety Grows Economies—Poor Governance Shrinks Them
Recently, WorkSafe ACT posted the latest episode of its Safety Spotlight podcast in which occupational health and safety (OHS) experts share their knowledge. There is commonality with much OHS advice,...
View ArticleTough questions about psychosocial safety and health
Over the next week or so, SafetyAtWorkBlog will be focusing on the issue of psychosocial hazards and psychological risks at work, as we cover the Psych Health and Safety Conference in Sydney. These...
View ArticleOHS questions remain after Jumping Castle owner freed
A Magistrate has said there is insufficient evidence to find Rosemary Gamble guilty of a criminal offence over an incident involving an inflatable jumping castle that resulted in the deaths of six...
View Article6 Essential OHS Questions for Employers
Occupational health and safety (OHS) laws establish duties on employers (and employees) to provide safe and healthy workplaces. These duties reflect the social morals of the time, but the morality of...
View ArticleOHS advice for new businesses
It is legitimate to not know something, but choosing not to know something is inappropriate, especially about something you are meant to be knowledgeable about, like occupational health and safety...
View Article“Does my business comply with the OHS/WHS law?”
Employers struggle to know if their businesses comply with the local occupational health and safety (OHS) or work health and safety (WHS) laws. They always have and, likely, always will. Employers are...
View ArticleBusiness values and OHS impacts
No one outside occupational health and safety (OHS) talks about OHS. Outside of scandals and disasters, OHS is a fringe consideration, especially in the media—social and mainstream. So, OHS needs to...
View ArticleTrust your gut
Recently, a former occupational health and safety (OHS) official from SouthEast Asia told me a story about how his “gut” gave him a feeling about employers and companies that did not have a genuine...
View ArticleNew Australian film on farming life and mental health
“Just a Farmer” is an extraordinary independent Australian film about an all too common occurrence on farms – suicide. The filmmakers have built a strong media profile over the last few months,...
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