SAFE WORK WEEK

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:56): Will the Minister for Industrial Relations detail to the chamber how this year's SafeWork Week will help convey safety messages better in the workplace?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:56): As members may be aware, I officially opened South Australia's annual occupational, health, safety and welfare event, SafeWork Week 2010, at the Education Development Centre on Monday. SafeWork Week 2010 offers a mix of free seminars, briefings and on-site workplace engagement to educate the community on the need to stay safe at work, and practical ways to do so.

Workplace consultation is the overarching theme of this year's event, and one SafeWork SA program is aiming to do just that, by taking the safety message into hundreds of workplaces. The Take 10@10 initiative, which is a do-it-yourself workplace safety training package, offers 10-minute safety presentations covering 10 important safety topics, including: forklifts; manual handling; occupational stress; working hours; drugs and alcohol; infection control; new and young workers; slips, trips and falls; bullying; and healthy workplaces. Organisations can choose to deliver any of the topics that suit their worksite in a presentation or informal style at a time that is convenient for them and their employees.

The Take 10@10 resource package allows employers to present case studies, encouraging audience participation to discuss and suggest ways to avoid incidents occurring. Take 10@10 is a simple cost-effective way managers, occupational health and safety professionals and the general workforce can understand how their actions and their ideas contribute to workplace safety, as well as fulfilling their obligations under the occupational health and safety legislation.

The presentation creates opportunities for participants to raise safety issues about their own workplace and offer solutions to address their concerns. This is the first year SafeWork SA has introduced this new safety awareness initiative, and already Take 10@10 is proving to be one of the stand-out successes of SafeWork Week, with more than 500 registrations received so far, including registrations from regional areas and interstate. This means that more than 153,000 employees who can be reached through these workplaces can benefit from the wide-ranging safety message and advice the Take 10@10 presentation provides.

This government, through the efforts of SafeWork SA, remains strongly committed to workplace safety to ensure that every South Australian worker comes home from work safe. We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of achieving the nationally agreed target of a 40 per cent reduction in workplace injury by 2012. Take 10@10 is just one of the many workplace safety initiatives helping us to work towards and exceed this target. For further information on the Take 10@10 initiative, or any other events of SafeWork Week 2010, members can visit SafeWork SA's website.