If we listen to some of the issues being raised in the court rooms of Australia where a worker has been killed, there may well be – in fact I would estimate there almost always is a defence that will argue something along the lines of this:

\”My client\’s company has an excellent safety culture and it is one they are very proud of.\”

They\’ve got the safety glasses and the yellow lines down pat but common sense got lost in the Frey when the young lad operating the machine (he\’s wearing his safety glasses by the way) as he begins the operation on an old piece of dangerous equipment that is completely void of ANY safety features whatsoever has just pulled him in and torn his body to pieces / crushed / dismembered etc.

Did you say, \”there is no such thing as common sense in safety\”?

Maybe that\’s the damned problem? The forest is hiding the trees!

Andrea, there is no such thing as common sense in safety or elsewhere. In the safety profession where large consultancies target large corporations with complex theories about leadership and behavioural safety, Shorten\’s words are original to some.

Shorten said “I take the opportunity on this memorial day to say to management teams: forget the big canvasses and the fancy words and the fancy theories.\”

I think following his time at the Beaconsfield mine disaster and the inquiries Shorten is well aware of safety management crap. He just needs to do more to counter it.

The toleration of small daily hazards leads inevitably to the total undermining of safety systems at the workplace. Workers become cynical about the gap between theory and practice which leads to a culture of \’turning a blind eye\’ to safety infringements – which is perpetuated by management based on short term expediency.

The differential consequences between minor and major non compliance becomes obscured and serious incidents thus occur.