Figures released by the Safety Institute of Australia (Victoria Division) suggest risk management may shield occupational health and safety (OHS) from budget cuts as industry hunkers down during the global financial crisis. Risk management is a clear priority of Australia's OHS professionals as they register for the Safety In Action conference conducted by Australian Exhibitions & Conferences in Melbourne.
For the three days conference-goers will attend presentations on the following issues:
- Community and public safety
- Corporate governance and OHS Managers
- Defence OHS and emergency management
- Environment and sustainability - the evolving landscape
- Lessons from major incidents
- Managing safety in small and medium business
- Recruitment, labour hire and contractor management
- Risk management
- Safety education - for a safe Australia
- Safety culture and workplace behaviour
- 2020 summit on transport
- Wellness in the workplace
Weeks out from the conference, risk management and the safety culture and workplace behaviour dominated registrations. According to John Merritt, Executive Director, WorkSafe Victoria, it made sense to invest in safety during an economic downturn. No workplace or industry can afford to let safety slip in tightening economic times. It is in precisely these circumstances that shortcuts must not be taken. There is nothing that will stop or slow work more quickly than a fatality or serious injury. John Merritt will be a speaker at the Safety In Action Conference.
The regulator's own approach to risk management will be detailed to conference attendees by WorkSafe Victoria, Carol Pagnon, who will present it as a text-book example of risk management. The enforcement arms of OHS regulators, the inspectors, will come under focus too, when Professor Michael Quinlan shares some of the insights from his five-year study of their work and offers practical advice about how to deal with an inspector.
Presentations in the risk management theme encompass the application of enterprise risk management, compliance among event companies, retaining older workers, building risk management capability and Target Zero. Jointly sponsored by WorkSafe Victoria and Downer EDI, the Safety In Action Conference runs at the Melbourne Convention Centre and will also mark the 60th anniversary of host, the Safety Institute of Australia.