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

Aged care emergency planning is one of those areas where the paperwork can look clean while the actual operational risk remains brutal. A facility may have evacuation diagrams, warden lists, emergency procedures and training records, but none of that means much if the system does not work for residents who cannot reliably hear, understand, remember, follow instructions or self-evacuate under pressure. I was involved, in my former role as an inspector, in reviewing an aged car

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

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

Tasmania’s regulator now expects psychosocial risk management to sit in documented risk registers with real consultation records, not just policies on a shelf. The Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice took effect in Tasmania on 4 Jan 23 following national model WHS amendments and is now the practical foundation for how you must identify, assess and control psychosocial risks such as bullying, excessive workload, violence and poor work design. It sits under

Another Victorian farmworker has lost their life in a machinery incident, and safety systems will be closely examined. I recall inspecting the agricultural space and having to work with the "old-school" mentality that came with it. It was always a pleasure to level with our primary producers and point them in the right direction. Too many of our farmers are dying at the hands of their machinery. Too many of our farmers are dying on the job. WorkSafe Victoria confirmed a 64‑