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National Strategy General Stakeholder

Workshop in Hobart, Tasmania

Date Wednesday 1 June 2011

Hosted by Mr Roy OrmerodGeneral Manager, Workplace Standards Tasmania

Location Hobart Facilitator Professor David Caple

TAS

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Contents

Page and Content

4. History of National Strategy

5. Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy

6. National Work Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and Development

7. Welcome

8. Workshop Introduction

9. Workshop participants profile

10. Session Scopes

11. Session 1: Group discussion on work health and safety in the next ten years

14. Session 2: Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the workforce, business and technology

20. Session 3: Work Health & Safety Systems in safe design, supply chain, safety leadership & organisational culture

26. Session 4: Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to disease, injury and psychological injury causing hazards

32. Closing Remarks

33. Evaluation Comments

Disclaimer: The views of participants expressed in this document are not necessarily the views of Safe Work Australia.

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History of National Strategy

The 10 year National Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Improvement Framework (NIF) was in place in the 1990s providing Australia with a nationally coordinated “roadmap” for improving workplace health and safety. The NIF signalled the commitment to OHS improvement in Australia by the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC), the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) and NOHSC members. It set out to improve prevention, share knowledge, foster partnerships and collaborations, and compare performance among the key OHS stakeholders in Australia.

The National OHS Strategy (National Strategy) was endorsed in May 2002 with the vision of Australian workplaces free from death, injury and disease. This was a tripartite initiative of NOHSC and unanimously endorsed by Federal, State and Territory Ministers. The 10 year timeframe was chosen to span political terms and provide the time to develop evidence based policies and programs. The Workplace Relations Ministers’ noted the successes of the National Road Strategy and its associated targets, and believed the inclusion of targets in a new document would help sharpen the national focus and efforts to improve Australia’s OHS performance.

The National Strategy set out the basis for nationally strategic interventions that were intended to foster sustainably safe and healthy work environments, and to reduce significantly the numbers of people hurt or killed at work. Five national priorities and nine areas that required national action were agreed. These collectively aimed to bring about short and long-term improvements in OHS, as well as longer-term cultural change. Reports on progress to achieve the objectives of the National Strategy were provided annually to WRMC.

NOHSC provided the original leadership and took carriage of the National Strategy until it was replaced by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council in 2005.

Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy

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In 2009 Safe Work Australia – an independent Australian Government statutory body - was established. It has primary responsibility for improving work health and safety and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia.

Safe Work Australia represents a genuine partnership between governments, unions and industry working together towards the goal of reducing death, injury and disease in workplaces.

The current and future National Strategy are key documents to guide the work of Safe Work Australia and others to achieve this goal. The current historic commitment to work health and safety is illustrated by the joint funding by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments of Safe Work Australia, facilitated through an intergovernmental agreement signed in July 2008.

Safe Work Australia members:

Back left to right:

Mr Mark Goodsell Australian Industry Group; Mr Brian Bradley Western Australia; Ms Michele Patterson South Australia; Ms Michelle Baxter Commonwealth; Mr Rex Hoy Chief Executive Officer; Mr Peter Tighe Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)

Front left to right: Ms Anne Bellamy Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mr John Watson New South Wales; Mr Tom Phillips AM Chair; Mr Michael Borowick (ACTU)

Absent: Mr Greg Tweedly Victoria; Mr Barry Leahy Queensland; Ms Liesl Centenera ACT; Mr Roy Ormerod Tasmania; and Ms Laurene Hull Northern Territory

National Work Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and Development

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Safe Work Australia is now developing a new National Work Health and Safety Strategy to supersede the previous Strategy that expires in June 2012.

To inform the development process, workshops are being held in all capital cities and a number of regional centres. These will seek ideas and comments from invited participants including employers, employees, regulators, work health and safety professionals, academics and interested community members.

Safe Work Australia will also continue to consult with key stakeholders through a range of other mechanisms including ongoing bilateral consultations and by commissioning topic papers from experts on selected issues. These consultations will allow Safe Work Australia Members to decide on priority

areas, targets and the Strategy’s duration.

Once a draft National Work Health and Safety Strategy has been agreed by Safe Work Australia Members this will be released for public comment early in 2012. The comments will be analysed and used to further inform the development of the new Strategy.

Welcome to participants

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Mr Roy Ormerod, General Manager of Workplace Standards ,Tasmania, welcomes participants to the Hobart workshop.

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Workshop IntroductionMr Tom Phillips AM, the Chair of Safe Work Australia gave an introduction to the workshop. He noted that the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012 provides a basis for developing sustainable, safe and healthy work environments and for reducing the number of people hurt or killed at work.

He noted that the current Strategy set very clear and ambitious goals for work heath and safety, and was a key initiative to improve Australia's work health and safety performance from 2002–12.

He thanked participants for attending and indicated that the workshops are an important part of the extensive stakeholder consultation process for the development of the New National Strategy. Mr Phillips invited participants to stay engaged and review the development progress reports on the new Strategy on the Safe Work Australia website as they are released.

Mr Phillips provided data on the progress and limitations of the current Strategy and lessons learnt.

He also noted the public comment period for the new Strategy early next year and welcomed participants’ comments at that time.

Mr Phillips’ presentation slides are available on the Safe Work Australia website.

Participant comments on the workshops and new National Strategy themes can be sent to nationalstrategy@safeworkaustralia.gov.au

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Hobart Workshop Participants’ Profile

01 June 2011 Number

Academic/Specialist/policy 3

Community based organisation 1

Company/General 11

Employer Association 3

OHS professional 9

Regulator 3

Union 2

Total 32

Session Scopes

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To assist participants all tables were given an outline of the meaning of the key discussion topics:

• Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the Workforce, Business and Technology – The Workforce - Changing worker demographics such as ageing, young workers, casualisation, contractor work, shift work, and

individual needs such as literacy, disability, mental health – Business: How business is changing to meet emerging challenges and to remain viable and competitive, such as outsourcing,

subcontracting, casualisation, etc – Technology: Innovations in the workplace that have already or may have a future impact on Work Health and Safety , such as

nanotechnology, green technology, innovations in genetics, electronics and IT systems.

• Work Health and Safety Systems – Challenges and Solutions in Safe Design and Work Systems, the Supply Chain, and in Safety Leadership and Organisational Systems

– Safe Design and Organisational Systems - the systems and principles that facilitate the elimination of hazards at the design or modification stage of products, buildings, structures and work processes

– Supply Chain: the tools or processes that influence the best safety outcomes within the supply chain that moves a product or a service from the supplier to the customer

– Safety Leadership and Organisation Culture: Safety leadership generates organisational cultures that view safety and productivity of equally importance, validated by the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values of the workforce.

• Hazards - Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to:– Disease-Causing Hazards - includes noise, hazardous substances, chemicals and asbestos – Injury-Causing Hazards - includes work practices, manual tasks, slips trips and falls – Psychological Injury-Causing Hazards - includes the design, management and organisation of work and work systems to achieve

resilient productive and safe psychological working environments.

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Session One: What will success look like in 10 years?• There are no workplace deaths and there are less injuries

and occupational diseases.• Work health and safety is a core value that is embedded

into workplace cultures and engenders ownership of safety for all.

• Work health and safety shuns self-interest and goes beyond compliance or rules and regulations and reduces paper-based compliance.

• Seamless administration ensures collaborative approaches and practices from regulators and inspectorates, and common codes, guidance material, compliance requirements on business.

• National consistency between management systems, benchmark data, communications, licensing and competencies (particularly the construction “white card” and first aid).

• A register of work health and safety expertise for jurisdictions to share and “buy-in” skills and education.

• There is greater participation of workers in work health and safety issues.

• Improved focus on long-term illness.• Injured workers return early and safely to the workplace.• The positives of good work health and safety are

effectively sold, with investment in skilled workers .

• COAG pursues a reduction in workplace injuries as a national priority

• Work health and safety successfully integrates Australia’s multiculturally diverse workforce, values and languages (using translators), including seasonal and migrant workers.

• Safety and ergonomics designed into workplaces.

• Risks from sham contracting and out -sourcing are controlled, and sole traders and subcontractors hold workers’ compensation insurance.

Session One: What will success look like in 10 years?

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• A fit workforce so demographic and lifestyle challenges (ageing, sedentary work) do not lead to a rise in workers’ compensation claims.

• There is greater commitment to safer workplaces by government, CEOs, employers and workers.

• SME staff feel they can speak up about safety, and dangerous work is not acceptable.• Work health and safety integration into school and TAFE curriculums includes work experience,

maximises the value of existing programs, highlights the economic value of safe work, and allows young workers and apprentices to enter the workforce job-ready.

• Training integrates work health and safety, incorporates literacy issues, ensures competent employers and workers, raises skill levels, and provides better packages for SMEs.

• New technology is harnessed, eg phone apps, internet (particularly good for SMEs).• The outcomes of the model legislation are monitored, including statutory compliance aspects,

and simplifications or improvements are made where necessary. • Australian industries learn lessons from inquests and incidents, so these are not repeated.• Work health and safety standards are high despite different ways of doing business, including

working from home.• There is genuine worker/shop floor input, with zero tolerance, a proactive preventative focus,

and no worker is made worse by work, with workers’ compensation claims reducing as a result.

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Session One: What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

• Show leadership, educate, challenge existing attitudes, and raise the profile of work health and safety.

• Set, publish, monitor and report on targets.• Develop a strategy to fund improved, coordinated, and up to

date research and data.• Facilitate a training and competency body that partners with

schools, develops national training programs, distributes information, addresses literacy issues, targets industry, develops professional work health and safety competencies, and educates employers and workers.

• Facilitate networking and collaboration between industry and other sectors, industry and unions, and allow unions entry to facilitate workplace training.

• Harmonise workers’ compensation.• Facilitate the creation of a national Work Health and Safety

and Workers’ Compensation Regulator. • Aid communication between jurisdictional bodies, and

provide expertise and resources to them, including psychological first aid training.

• Encourage flexible work that integrates ageing and a healthy work-life balance.

• Ensure that work health and safety policy addresses the needs of emergency and health care workers who regularly face the effects of violence and drugs.

• Provide incentives/rewards for safe workplaces (eg tax).

• Integrate work health and safety, environmental and public health policy.

• Facilitate the integration of work health and safety into business by positively marketing work health and safety by showing links between safety, profitability and sustainability.

• Engage and benchmark with international bodies.• Engage with the community with particular focus on

contractors and small business.• Review procurement and tender processes to ensure

equity.

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Session Two: Emerging Issues in the WorkforceWhat will success look like in 10 years time?

• Flexible healthy safe workplaces adjust in response to changing demographics, seasonal fluctuations, fly-in/ fly-out, contracting, casualisation, and new technologies.

• Succession plans and mentoring programs are inclusive of multicultural workers, and harness the participation of older workers, those with physical, mental and emotional disabilities, part-timers, shift workers and home-based workers to full capacity.

• Effective employee assistance programs and open communication channels address issues of stress, mental health, violence and potentially whistle-blowers.

• Industry-based due diligence obligations and risk assessments balance the inherent risks of dangerous work against the obligation to protect workers’ safety.

• Guidance material, literacy programs, education and training or induction is made available or provided for free, especially for SMEs, new or young employees, and also to supporting older and existing workers.

• Technology is used to target industry-specific needs.• The effectiveness of safety approaches is measured.

Session Two: Emerging Issues in the Workforce What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

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• Encourage employers to place more emphasis on health and safety as opposed to only on profit.

• Develop a Safe Work Rebate model (based on those provided by workers’ compensation schemes) to provide incentives to meet targets. Incentives to flow back into health and safety, not general funding.

• Develop a Safe Work Australia Accreditation scheme for guidance, skills and competency, and consider subsidising it so that it can be provided free to SMEs.

• Provide accurate data and modelling of health and safety outcomes for professionals to use to support cost-benefit and to justify why spending money on work health and safety will provide a return on investment.

• Strongly promote and emphasise an improved work-life balance.

Session Two: Emerging Issues in BusinessWhat will success look like in 10 years time?

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• Leaders are safety ambassadors.• Simplified accessible guidance for SMEs.• Business is not fearful of regulators, has a no

blame culture, and asks for advice if needed andtherefore knows how to comply.

• There is rigour around work health and safety trainingwith specific learning and development plans for

individuals and growth plans for organisations.• Work health and safety skills become a measure of

competence for CEOs and managers. • Work health and safety is part of being successful in the market and is not viewed as

something we do just because we are required to.• There is a consistent framework for implementing and measuring work health and safety

practices within a particular industry.• Businesses learn from the tourism industry how to factor in work health and safety to overcome

language and literacy barriers when employing overseas workers (backpackers, seasonal workers).

• Businesses know about licensing and authorisation requirements, how to do risk assessment etc when buying-in skills and how to manage their responsibilities when outsourcing.

Session Two: Emerging Issues in Business What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this?

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• Allow an amnesty for model legislation to allow time to catch up, get things right.

• Develop a minimum standard of work health and safety knowledge required for employers to operate in business.

• Develop national training programs that factor in literacy and other language issues and are industry focussed.

• Provide or facilitate more regulator training and growth in competencies to ensure a common standard across industries and jurisdictions.

• Ensure that contractors have to factor in work health and safety in procurement and tender processes and are not able to opt out of costs, eg workers’ compensation.

• Provide seed funding for business to pick up work health and safety initiatives.

• Promote guidance and develop a communications strategy for regulators to inform businesses on compliance.

• Apply a common enforcement strategy that supports business to comply, and applies consistently.

• Develop industry-specific information, but recognising that solutions should be based on hazards, so common hazards are dealt with the same way across sectors.

• Ensure that national and local industry peak employer bodies are giving the same message.

Session Two: Emerging Issues in TechnologyWhat will success look like in 10 years time?

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• Emerging technology is used to build connections between remote and rural workers (including parents at home) so that they feel less isolated and receive good work health and safety advice regardless of regional variations.

• Workers have the capacity to walk away from work if it does not provide a safe work life balance or well-defined work hours.

• The work health and safety implications of new technologies are built in from the start and understood by all policy makers.

• A precautionary approach is in place for new technologies that allows economic development and does not stifle innovation.

• There is effective health surveillance for workers exposed to new technologies.

• Emerging technology (including the NBN) allows workers to live and work safely in Tasmania, and provides a balance between working from home, social interaction at work, and a good work-life balance.

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Session Two: Emerging Issues in Technology What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

• Be viewed as a centre of excellence for knowledge on work health and safety for all related policy.

• Lead by example with new technologies• Work hand-in-hand with agencies in

checking policy proposals for work health and safety implications during budget process.

• Promote and facilitate contact with the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

• Promote the interpreting services available from the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) National, to help workplaces and individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds to participate fully in work health and safety.

• Develop an accreditation system for the work health and safety implications of new technologies (coordinated nationally).

• Provide incentives for work health and safety innovations.

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Session Three: Safe Design & Work SystemsWhat will success look like in 10 years time?

• Design specifications are interpreted and converted into a practical format for end users.

• There are adequate research and testing facilities for new materials.

• There is a level playing field across industries with regard to applying standards.

• Hazard control (in particular for the building industry) is built into the design approval process and approved independently.

• There is a clear and safe approval process for importing overseas products – products do not enter Australia if they have failed an overseas testing process.

• Clear labelling and hazard information is provided to retailers who sell chemicals and products.

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Session Three: Safe Design & Work Systems What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

• Provide clarity on who decides what the priorities are for updating standards (some are very out of date).

• Provide codes and standards cheaper or for free (some are very expensive).

• Make referencing simpler and avoid numerous standards.

• Ensure that standards are equally applied across an industry.

• Research and testing of new products.• Set up a “user group” that provides simpler

referencing and interprets the standards, thereby providing an “industry roadmap”.

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Session Three: Supply ChainWhat will success look like in 10 years time?

• Powerful influencers provide support for others.

• Genuine corporate and social responsibility is taken for those both above and below in the supply chain.

• Unsafe products sourced overseas are controlled.

• Groups of purchasers use their collective buying power to influence manufacturers and end users.

• Governments use their collective procurement power to influence work health and safety across the gamut of industries.

• Safe design is in place for upstream consumers.

• There is safe manufacturing of components for downstream consumers.

• Contractors include safety in their tenders.

• End users are encouraged to make sure / insist that the products they purchase were built safely.

Session Three: Supply ChainWhat should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

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• Provide guidance on the balance needed between paperwork and safety outcomes, thereby reducing onerous paperwork and red tape.

• Monitor international work health and safety practices by drawing on networks with other Commonwealth Government departments.

• Engage community outrage about unsafe practices.

• Introduce a form of “safety branding”, like the “ticks for wool” and “Made in Australia” campaigns.

• Learn from environmental campaigns, fair trade etc.

• Liaise with and support the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) global network, to encourage them to include ergonomic processes in product information (noting that there is a risk in “approving” or recommending an item, if it subsequently turns out to be dangerous).

Session Three: Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture. What will success look like?

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• Leadership from the top with a framework and structure in place that establishes safety as a value, led by leaders (not just government, but CEOs and other senior managers), and includes proper competencies and accountability.

• Accountability is authentic, and is supported by a training regime that sheets responsibilities home throughout the organisation to the individual level on site, meets statutory obligations, and exhibits positive attitudes to work health and safety (as distinct from financial).

• Work health and safety is highly visible in senior management who gather data to measure and report on it, within a no-blame culture.

• Every board meeting starts with a safety report and there are lead as well as lag indicators for reporting performance.

• Safe work is linked to workers’ compensation but not to industrial issues.

• There is mandatory work health and safety reporting in annual reports.

• Good performance is rewarded by tax offsets.• There are nationally-consistent workers’

compensation systems imposing the same standards across organisations.

• Safety reputation is valued and workers expect a safe culture.

Session Three: Safety Leadership & Organisational Culture 4 What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

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• Provide business with tools to put safety leadership cultures in place, raise awareness and promote it through national campaigns, training, education, as the agenda is broader than just workplaces.

• Learning from campaigns that changed community attitudes (seat belt legislation; drink-driving). • Broadcast the “Safety first, work second” message to business and employees, set common

goals for a cultural change in behaviour across Australia, so that all workers know the risks (not just those in high risk work areas).

• Facilitate increased education including via the national curriculum for schools (“Passport to safety” program) that focus on safe living, with work as a sub-set of this, seek to instil a risk assessment approach that develops and builds from traffic or fire safety through school while kids are young enough to learn (before age 20).

• Name and shame poor performers, and publicise and praise what businesses are doing right.• Seize the opportunity provided by model legislation, and promote relevant standards, personally

and in organisations.• Provide safety training and develop training and core competencies in safety leadership that are

mandatory for leaders.• Support creative student training for students from Year 10 up to university that is linked with what

they learn at home, and at future workplace (NB – Young Workers’ Toolkit will launch June 2011). • Share innovation and promote success.

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Session Four: Responding to Disease-Causing Hazards What will success look like in 10 years time?

• We no longer have 2 000 people dying from exposure to long latency disease-causing hazards.

• GPs are aware of what to look for and we have early detection.

• There is raised awareness of hazards and exposures.

• Material Safety Data Sheets are written in plain language and are easy to read and interpret - cheat sheets are provided when needed.

• Technical expertise is provided.• Businesses are not victimised.

Session Four: Responding to Disease-Causing Hazards What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve success?

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Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by:• running targeted campaigns with

support and incentives to aid implementation of preventative measures

• implementing mentoring initiatives that help industry to tackle issues

• monitoring hazard exposures and trying to eliminate hazards

• raising awareness among younger generation (eg seatbelt, drink-driving) to avoid people getting into bad habits without realising the danger, and

• where not able to eliminate hazards, make alternatives known.

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Session Four: Responding to Injury-Causing Hazards What will success look like in 10 years time?

• Businesses use up-to-date mechanical aids to avoid musculoskeletal disease.

• There is a positive attitude to housekeeping.

• Both managers and employers take ownership of the workplace and take responsibility for cleanliness and safety.

• Equipment is used appropriately and the right gear is used for the task.

• Businesses know the consequences of injury, the impact on home, family, and sporting life.

• All CEOs empower their workers.

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Session Four: Responding to Injury-Causing Hazards What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this?

Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by:• encouraging the culture of “if

can’t be done safely, it can’t be done”

• encouraging intervention and the installation of a culture where people can pull each other up for unsafe behaviour, and

• encouraging 360 degree feedback where workers are comfortable to point out hazards to managers.

Session Four: Responding to Psychological Injury- Causing Hazards 4 What will success look like in 10 years time?

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• Despite how hard the subject is, psychological injuries are recognised as valid, are treated like any other illnesses and all stigma is removed.

• There is clear understanding that stress can be caused by a single incident (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or be cumulative, with no single event being the cause.

• Management is trained and capable of recognising and managing psychological injuries.

• Affected persons are provided with help in the form of skills to build their toolbox of coping strategies, and resilience.

• All of the above lead to efficient management of psychological injuries.

• There is a cultural change that accepts, discusses, recognises, and does not shy away from psychological injuries.

• Targets are set that facilitate an authentic reduction of injuries, possibly a zero target.

• There are adequate resources and support services.

• Resources for appropriate support when there is a separate compliance model from that of other injuries.

• Psychological first aid training is freely available in workplaces.

• Peer support and programs are available and where injuries can be handled in-house, mentors are available.

• Controls are in place, and there is sustainable return to work.

• Psychological injury programs are evaluated for their ongoing efficacy.

Session Four: Responding to Psychological Injury-Causing Hazards 4 What should Safe Work Australia do to achieve this?

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Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by:• ensuring adequate resources and training• providing guidance material and better

data• encouraging cultural change• raising awareness, promoting successful

solutions• researching and analysing the data and

translating international research into the Australian context and a useable format

• helping businesses to understand the data, psychological indicators, and the process for handling injuries, including workers’ compensation

• helping employers to develop mental health awareness and indicators

• supporting jurisdictions to provide inspectors (with specialist skills to recognise bullying), and

• supporting industries to understand their role in dealing with conditions like depression.

• Helping employers to understand the economic drivers of good psychological injury management, including the link between socio-economic background, or other family or social background, and psychological injury or risk of injury (versus privacy).

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Closing Reflections from the Chair

Mr Phillips thanked Mr Roy Ormerod of Workplace Standards Tasmania for opening the workshop, the facilitator Professor David Caple, and all the workshop participants for their attendance and contribution. He commented that while this was understandably a much smaller workshop than the Sydney one, the smaller Hobart group more than made up for that by their enthusiasm and their impressive contribution to the debate.

Mr Phillips noted some of the key themes which had emerged during the discussion, particularly the importance that he personally places on safety education and training. Mr Phillips made a commitment to action to ensure that work health and safety will be included in education from school age onwards.

Mr Phillips also emphasised the need for leadership, and the importance of an organisation’s culture in promoting safety. He complimented the Hobart attendees for their passion for work health and safety and called on them to be “implementation champions” for the new Strategy.

Mr Phillips went on to observe that the workshop themes chosen for exploration were just some of the many that are under active consideration by Safe Work Australia Members as they develop the new National Strategy. He closed the workshop by welcoming participants’ ongoing engagement with the development of the new Strategy and that if they would like to provide further comments and ideas these may be sent to nationalstrategy@safeworkaustralia.gov.au

Evaluation Outcomes

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Overall, the feedback from the National Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 workshop which was held in Hobart on 1 June was very positive.

Both quantitative and qualitative results were collected from 21 evaluation sheets, which reported 100% approval with the length of the workshop, with 100% and 90% satisfaction respectively on the opportunity to contribute and the format of the day. There was 100% satisfaction with the facilitators, while the room set up, location and food rated between 86-95% levels of satisfaction.

Some found that the facilitators were very good, while others would have liked them to stay on topic. The ample opportunity for input was commented on favourably and the workshop format allowed for excellent opportunity for discussion and reflection on how we can all improve our workplace safety practices by influencing change at our workplace. A number of participants (nearly 40%) found the workshop to be a good networking opportunity.

The opportunity to provide feedback and input at this critical stage of developing the new National Work Health and Safety Strategy was appreciated, and the fact that all input was respectfully received and many times validated by the presenters was expected to result in what should be a very positive outcome for all industries .

Many helpful suggestions were made on how to improve the quality of discussion, ranging from perhaps more of a push for participants to focus on what 2022 would look like. Some of the presentations tended to be about how we are or should manage issues presently or currently to the need for smaller group discussion based around input from the workers rather than the managers and experts in these areas.

Whilst most people were satisfied with the pace of the workshop, some requested more time for each topic to discuss and debate proposals. However, others found it hard to stay focussed for the whole length, and as there was 100% satisfaction with the length of the workshop, this was taken as a positive measure of participant enthusiasm overall.

Text in italics indicates direct quotes from responders