Two days ago, Ian Macdonald, the New South Wales Minister for Mineral Resources opened the annual conference of the NSW Minerals Council. It was a dour presentation but delegates said that the Minister is not the most exciting public speaker. Macdonald announced a new research program into safety culture, an announcement that did not get much response from the conference delegates, … Continue reading “Mining Minister’s safety claims challenged”
It was good to hear the President of the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), Barry Silburn on the radio on 7 December 2009. The SIA has traditionally been very hesitant about going public on safety issues but clearly the potential disappearance of the School of Risk & Safety Science from the University of New South … Continue reading “The future of the School of Risk & Safety Science”
A special guest for the Safe Work Australia events in Queensland was Matthew Gill, former Beaconsfield Gold mine manager. According to a media statement from the Government “Matthew Gill who was the public face of the Beaconsfield mine rescue will speak about how he immediately took control of the emergency and then implemented rescue operations for … Continue reading “Management – the importance of what comes before”
SafetyAtWorkBlog has repeatedly called for the release of the report into the Beaconsfield mine disaster that was undertaken by Greg Melick, QC. The Tasmanian Government has today made the report and appendices available online. The OHS-specific reports by Professor Michael Quinlan have also been released.
Since the 2006 rockfall at Beaconsfield Mine in Tasmania, the public has received limited information. There have been books about the rescue of two workers and the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Larry Knight. Greg Mellick undertook an investigation into the rockfall and found that noone was to blame for the rockfall. Many workplace … Continue reading “Why won’t the Tasmanian government release the OHS report into the Beaconsfield mine collapse?”
The Safety in Action conference is lucky to have Professor Michael Quinlan as a keynote speaker, as he has seriously curtailed his conference appearances to favour those that benefit the safety profession over the commercial conferences. His, and Richard Johnstone’s, research on 1200 inspectors has provided useful insight into the effectiveness and roles of OHS … Continue reading “Professor Quinlan outlines the roles and approaches of the OHS inspectorate”
There have been several incidents recently that illustrate the unenviable pressures on inspectors and Australian OHS regulators. The Tasmanian Coroner found that the mining inspectorate of Workplace Standards Tasmania was “inadequate” and incapable of “of carrying out its core function of inspecting and enforcing best safety practices within the mining industry.” Two inspectors for that … Continue reading “Role of OHS Inspectors”