Year: 2018

Stay Safe over the Silly Season

During the busy lead up to Christmas, both employers and employees should give some extra thought to safety. PCBUs need to be aware of the safety and risk issues that arise at this time of year. Alcohol at festive season celebrations, increased workload and pressure leading up to Christmas, changes in shifts and short-handed rosters … Continued

Looking ahead to 2019

While there are no major legislative overhauls expected in 2019, Safe Work Australia’s review of the model WHS laws is due to be finalised by the end of the year, and this will (in all likelihood) have a flow-on effect to the state Legislation. The aim of the review is to identify areas of the … Continued

Risks and Opportunities

Historically the word Risk has been associated with the negative – ‘what could go wrong.’ The very definition of risk within ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management, as the ‘effect of uncertainty on objectives,’ is inherently negative with uncertainty not generally being associated with positive connotations or outcomes. However, in the new suite of ISO standards using … Continued

Chain of Responsibility Update

As of October 1st 2018, the much-anticipated changes to the Heavy Vehicle National Law and Chain of Responsibility (CoR) rules took effect. While the overarching principle that all parties in the chain are responsible for ensuring safety remains in place, the legislative changes reflect the structure of the current WHS Legislation. These adjustments include: The … Continued

BCM Buy-In

Like all management strategies and systems, business continuity management (BCM) and plans (BCPs) are only as good as their implementation. And being properly implemented relies entirely on the buy-in of the responsible organisational personnel, especially top management. In the absence of management support, the necessary resources and operational prioritisation may not be available to embed … Continued

WHS on trial – a Mock Court

Early in the month QRMC had the pleasure of supporting a Mock Trial exercise to open the 2018 Safety Institute of Australia Visions Conference on the Gold Coast. The Mock Trial was facilitated by Aaron Anderson and his team from Norton Rose Fulbright. The scenario was based on a serious hospitalisation injury resulting from a … Continued

Reputational risk from supply chains

How many times have we heard Apple come under fire because of terrible employee health and safety practices at supplier factories in China? Or clothing brands held responsible for awful working conditions in India and Bangladesh, or sporting goods manufacturers accused of fostering child labour? Ignorance of poor practices in the supply chain is never … Continued