If It’s in Your Risk Assessment, You Must Implement It
A recent Queensland court decision has reinforced a critical principle in work health and safety: identifying hazards and documenting control measures is not enough. Controls must be implemented, supervised, and enforced in practice. The matter arose from an incident at a worksite in Queensland involving interaction between mobile plant and pedestrian workers, a well-regarded high-risk activity. A pedestrian worker sustained serious injury when struck by operating machinery
Consultation as the fundamental failure in serious work health and safety incidents
Serious workplace incidents, worker fatalities, and life‑altering injuries rarely occur in the absence of prior warning signs. Repeatedly, investigations, coronial inquiries and court decisions show that the most common systemic failure is not the absence of written safety systems, but the failure of those systems to be informed by meaningful consultation. Consultation failures are consistently identified as a root cause of serious harm.
"Bullying" versus "Reasonable Management" actions
Two recent bullying cases addressed by the Fair Work Commission highlight a need to understand what is bullying and what are “reasonable management actions."
Food Delivery Riders Need To Be Inducted
For some time now, there has been a steady stream of news reports where food delivery riders in our major cities have been involved in accidents with buses, trams, cars, and pedestrians. It is common for foreign students to do this kind of work while they study in Australia. During February 2021, SafeWork NSW undertook field inspections and compliance assurance activities of food delivery riders. There were 287 inspections. The inspections revealed that the riders were pred
Recent prosecutions show ongoing inadequacies in warehouse safety training
2025 so far has seen the courts in New South Wales handing down eight major convictions involving forklift-related incidents. These cases involved both companies and sole traders and have resulted in substantial fines and public scrutiny. A worker was fatally pinned by a 7-tonne forklift after alighting the forklift at an Electrical contracting site. The business was convicted and fined $150,000, with a project order imposed. A 43-year-old forklift operator was struck and
Bullying and Harassment costs Director $15,000 in fines
Trigger warning : This article talks about workplace sexual harassment and bullying. If this topic is distressing, feel free to skip the...
Warehouse risk management failures lead to $35,000 fine
It is important that warehouses have correct control measures to mitigate risks from hazards that exist in the workplace. A common hazard...
Proposed amendments to the WHS Act
The following is from our associates at Kingston Reid Lawyers in Sydney. This article is written by Special Counsel Kate Curtain who is...
Fire Training does not have to be delivered only by an RTO
It comes up from time to time, the question of what WHS training can or should be done by a Registered Training Provider (RTO), or by...
What does it take to be an HSR trainer?
Courtenell put considerable effort into expanding its scope of WHS services in 2023. Being one of the oldest training providers in New...
Menopause is not a "WHS matter"
17 April, 2025. 5 minute read A company (that shall remain unnamed) recently advocated for including menopausal staff on their workplace...
Liabilities of Directors in new Industrial Manslaughter laws
From 16 September 2024, industrial manslaughter has been a formal offence under New South Wales work health and safety (WHS) legislation.
“Hands on” Director not prosecuted
27 March 2025. 3 minute read. The recent court case of SafeWork NSW v Miller Logistics Pty Ltd; SafeWork NSW v Mitchell Doble [2024]...