A worker entered a demolition site with two feet and left without the toes and part of the forefoot of his left foot. The risk had been identified, the controls had been documented and the business had a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS), but the controls described in that document were not operating when they were needed. Photo by Frederick Shaw on Unsplash On 02 Jul 26, the South Australian Employment Court convicted A. Haros Demolition Pty Ltd of a Category 2 offence under

Two Queensland prosecutions released in Jul 26 provide useful lessons about how organisations manage work outside their normal operations and how they respond when an existing control system has already failed. One involved an apprentice losing an eye during an unfamiliar ancillary task, while the other involved a dozer operator spending approximately eight hours trapped upside down beneath a coal stockpile. The industries, work and legislation were different, but the underly

Photo by Kilyan Sockalingum on Unsplash On 02 Jul 26, the Industrial Court of New South Wales convicted Wumbulgal Agriculture Pty Ltd following the death of a farmhand operating a quad bike during livestock mustering. The company was fined $555,000, ordered to pay SafeWork NSW’s agreed costs of $55,000, and required to arrange side-by-side vehicle training for all workers employed or engaged by the business. The offence was prosecuted as a Category 2 contravention of sections

On 26 May 25, Comcare publicly announced that Services Australia had been charged with breaching federal work health and safety laws after a worker was violently attacked at a Melbourne Centrelink office. The charge arose from a 23 May 23 incident at the Airport West Centrelink office, where a Centrelink worker suffered serious injuries after being stabbed by an individual at the workplace. This is not a matter to be treated as a standard “difficult customer” incident. It is

Officer due diligence is one of the more misunderstood parts of Australian WHS law, which is impressive given safety legislation already contains enough plain English avoidance to power a small Canberra department. At its core, due diligence means an officer must take reasonable, active and informed steps to ensure the organisation complies with its health and safety duties. It is not the same as doing every safety task personally, and it is not satisfied by hiring a safety m

A worker is dead, a company has been fined $472,500, and another Australian prosecution has landed squarely on the same recurring issue seen across heavy industry for decades, hazardous plant interacting with inadequate systems of work. This time it involved a green waste grinder in New South Wales. The underlying failures were neither novel nor technically complex. That is what makes these incidents so frustrating from a safety perspective. According to SafeWork NSW, Northwe

A Victorian residential builder has been convicted and fined after WorkSafe found contractors working more than three metres above ground level without fall protection. Desbo Industries Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court on 05 Mar 26 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure a workplace under its management and control was safe and without risks to health. The company was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay $4,422 in costs. The facts are not complex, which

The recent District Court outcome in NSW, where $250,000 in combined fines were ordered against a skydiving operator and its sole director following a double fatality, is not a “high-risk industry” curiosity. It is a straight application of duty, risk, and control failure. The hazard was a modified aircraft step that introduced a snag point. The failure was allowing that condition to exist without engineering assurance, inspection, or an effective control set. The consequence

WorkSafe Victoria has announced that Pearl Construction Group Pty Ltd was convicted and fined $150,000 in the Melbourne County Court after a 23-year-old worker suffered fatal head injuries when he fell about three metres through an unprotected stair void on a Glen Waverley townhouse site in September 2022. WorkSafe says the company pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing to ensure a workplace under its management or control was safe and without risks to health. The regul