Comments on: If safety culture begins at the top, what message is the Australian Government sending on insulation installer deaths?

By: Lessons from Royal Commission into Home Insulation Program – Part 1 « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Fri, 05 Sep 2014 04:21:20 +0000

[…] questions about their knowledge, actions and decisions on the HIP. But as Australian lawyer Michael Tooma has pointed out many times Ministers are exempt from the recently introduced Work Health and Safety […]

By: Ministerial responsibility in finance but not in workplace safety « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Mon, 12 May 2014 13:04:36 +0000

[…] of this, as he describes it, “purely cynical political” exercise. In this era of safety leadership and OHS exemplars, the decision to exempt Ministers seems cowardly. Tooma writes in his analysis […]

By: Moral conflicts in store for Australian politicians and bureaucrats « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Thu, 26 Dec 2013 02:15:12 +0000

[…] of the WHS laws. The injustice of this exemption was pointed out at the time of the new laws, particularly by Michael Tooma, but OHS/WHS was not on the public radar then to the extent that it will be during the first half […]

By: Coronial report into insulation deaths slams government actions « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Sun, 07 Jul 2013 22:02:15 +0000

[…] If safety culture begins at the top, what message is the Australian Government sending on insulation… […]

By: Australian Government shifts workplace bullying into the industrial relations system « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:16:12 +0000

[…] understand him not giving his department the role as it has demonstrated a flawed understanding of OHS in the past and Ministers are often held to be responsible for departmental cock-ups. But why not give the […]

By: Tooma takes aim at the Environment Minister over accountability « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:54:31 +0000

[…] lack of accountability over the deaths, fires and injuries that resulted from the botched home insulation scheme. “Without prompting from the expert panel that recommended the laws or the Workplace […]

By: The politics of the insulation debacle become clearer « SafetyAtWorkBlog

The politics of the insulation debacle become clearer « SafetyAtWorkBlog — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:51:13 +0000

[…] that the insulation program was unsafe from the start or, rather, that safety was not given the priority it demanded. The deaths of installers should have generated considerably more speed in the Governments’ […]

By: Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson

Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:22:25 +0000

What I find beyond frustration and ability to cope with is that in every contract to build, modify, alter, manufacture etc is the unwritten and not spoken of costing of workplace injuries and x numbers of workplace deaths.

Thus regardless of what OHSW is put in place or however the harmonization process is to happen, the truth is that the cost of workplace injuries and workplace fatals are taken care of by the way of insurance payments.

It is way past time for the OHSW and WorkCover industry\’s to tell the truth about the need for workers to attend unsafe workplaces just so that the OHSW and WorkCover industry\’s can have something to do to justify their exisitence.

Go to any WorkCover industry web site, and you will find industry seminars, conferences, information sessions, webinars, traning schedules and the like.
There is a great deal of money to be made out of making unsafe workplaces \”safe\” and a great deal of money to be made out of the broken bodies of the injured workers.

Just as it is not in the petrochemical industry\’s best interest to develope a petrol free mode of transport.
It is not in the OHSW WorkCover industry\’s best interest to build a better safe workplace system.
If that were not so then we would not be seeing the same number of workplace injuries and workplace deaths as we still have.

Just think if there were no inspectors going from work site to work site issuing warnings and the odd fine, what would these people be employed to do.
If there were not endless seminars, conferences, training sessions, webinars, what would the travelling speaking professionals have to talk about.
It should be by now very clear that none of the professional information is getting to where it needs to be.
Instead the highly crafted power points sessions and industry graphs sit to one side and gather dust.

There is no duty of care, there is only an insurance cost to pay, and if the projects are fortunate there will be no death claim to be paid, so the next major project will have a lesser premium.

Reality is not at all pleasant, it is harsh and it is never spoken of but it is the injured workers within the system who have no say but they do pay the highest price with their bodies and their lives.

To know this I need only go to the Deceased Workers Memorial Forest where on Wednesday we will plant 15 more trees, bringing the total of trees planted since 2003 to 140 trees and ground covers.
The forest is a peaceful place to sit and reflect, but it is also a very sad place to be knowing that each tree and ground cover represents a family missing a loved one, and also knowing that the insurance cover was in place to pay the death benifit for the loss.