Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation: Riverland Visit

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (16:25): I move:

That the report of the committee, on the committee's regional visit to the Riverland, be noted.

In November last year, the committee visited the magnificent Riverland region to develop a deeper and more widespread appreciation of things affecting the region, particularly in relation to work health and safety. The region grows about half of South Australia's grapes and more than 90 per cent of the citrus and stone fruit. The horticultural, viticultural and agricultural industries within the Riverland are the largest employers in the area. It was a privilege to visit some of those businesses, which included Accolade Wines, Almondco, CostaExchange and the Riverland General Hospital.

Our visit occurred at the same time as the Pinery fires, which meant that the member for Schubert was unable to attend as planned. Fortunately, we were able to bypass the fire and arrive safely into Berri, but the smoke was a constant reminder of the situation facing many in the Pinery region.

The committee's first site visit was to Accolade Wines, which is located between Berri and Barmera. It is the largest wine company by volume for the United Kingdom and Australian markets. Accolade Wines began as a cooperative in 1928 and it is now the largest winemaking facility in the Southern Hemisphere. It has seven winery sites in four states, with the Berri site having a crush capacity of 220,000 tonnes and storage tanks of over 263 million litres, which is the equivalent of 350 million bottles. We were privileged to climb to the top of those tanks and, whilst the view was spectacular, it also provided a perspective of the enormous expanse of the site.

Accolade Wines has a presence in Chile, South Africa and California, as well as in New Zealand, and exports over 10 million litres to more than 140 countries. The company employs 280 people at the Berri site, many of whom are family groups, in roles such as laboratory technicians, cleaners and production staff. During the vintage, which is about eight to 12 weeks each year, a further 150 casuals are employed.

The company has a number of health and wellbeing programs and award programs in place to promote safety. These include the Safety Leader of the Year, Bright Ideas, and the CEO Safety Award, which recognises individuals who contribute to safety innovation. They provide health screening to staff and a pedometer challenge. The company developed safety innovations to eliminate the need for staff to enter confined spaces. These included the development of vacuum tanks and a cleaning in place system. Now the only reason to enter confined spaces is to repair tank seals.

The committee's next tour was of Almondco at Renmark, which began as a cottage industry in the early 20^th century. It began as a result of a trip to California to explore almond growing as a commercial business which revealed how production could be improved through irrigation and nutrition. Almondco now produces 800,000 metric tonnes of almonds, which is a 6 per cent global growth over eight years. Australia is second only to California, which is the biggest almond-producing location in the world. Australia exports 75 per cent of its produce to 40 different countries around the world, with India being the largest importer. Almonds are worth more than $1 billion to the South Australian economy alone.

The biggest risk to the industry is reputation if anything goes wrong, such as almonds being affected by salmonella, chemicals or pathogens. For this reason, Almondco received a grant from the South Australian government of $1.9 million to assist in the installation of a new high-tech pasteurisation system. The system provides Almondco with a competitive advantage because food manufacturers prefer the safety and security of Almondco's product. The system created $120 million in new business in the first two years of operation.

Fifteen years ago, Almondco employed 50 staff, but now they employ 350, and so they have seen the value in improving operations and safety systems for workers. The inclusion of more robots to reduce manual handling and elevated platforms that allow workers to sit or stand when sorting almonds are just two examples of the systems that have been introduced. Consideration around safety now informs a large part of management's reports.

The committee next toured the CostaExchange citrus fruit facility in Renmark, where many navel oranges are grown and picked for distribution within Australia and exported to countries such as the USA, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The Costa Group began as a small family company in 1938 and has since expanded into farming mushrooms, blueberries and raspberries. It grows D'VineRipe tomatoes in Virginia and glasshouse tomatoes in New South Wales. It has farms in all states and supplies fruits and vegetables to large supermarket chains, such as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. Costa not only farms, packs and exports fruit and vegetables but it also designs, sells and advises on irrigation equipment.

Sixteen per cent of Australia's citrus products, which include oranges, mandarins, lemons and tangerines, are grown in the Riverland. Australia's main export country for citrus is Japan. Costa employs 100 casuals, and during the harvest—that is, May through to November—these ranks swell to over 800 casuals, who are mainly involved in fruit picking. Many backpackers are attracted to the Riverland for seasonal work, and this can present some problems with language, induction and supervision. The induction, which is delivered to about 3,000 people, needs to be delivered in 10 different languages.

Their safety focus is on workplace culture and encouraging good behaviour and early reporting of hazards. The company was recently acknowledged at the South Australian Food Industry Awards by winning the Department of Industry's Innovation and Science Industry Skills Development Recognition Award, and it was a finalist in the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Education Foundation of South Australia Best Practice Award.

The last site visited by the committee was the Berri Regional Health Service at the Riverland General Hospital. The committee was greeted by the acting manager and her senior staff. The Executive Director Workforce and Acting Manager Injury Management joined us via videoconferencing. Videoconferencing is a very important tool which assists the health service to connect with specialists in the city when needed.

The Riverland General Hospital is an impressive 32-bed hospital that provides comprehensive medical and surgical services to the Riverland community and employs 140 staff, including nurses, maintenance and allied staff, as well as administrators. There is a six-bed mental health ward, which is least restrictive for consumers, and there has only been one incident of aggression since its opening some 12 months ago.

The committee learnt about the relationship between patient safety and quality and staff safety, which we were advised is an integral part of the health services system of care. The manual handling is the focus of attention, as is employee wellness, employee assistance and prevention of blood and body fluid exposure. There are also a number of proactive campaigns in place to encourage positive workplace culture. Early intervention is the key to the return-to-work program, and psychological injuries are managed through a multi-discipline team, and the use of videoconferencing for specialist psychiatric services.

The health service reported that their emergency department is experiencing an increasing frequency of aggressive incidents due to illicit drugs. To address this concern they have a code black team in place, increased security staff and hard-wired duress alarms, as well as increased staff training.

Prior to leaving the Riverland, the committee met with the SafeWork SA regional office in Berri. The office currently is staffed by only one person and it has a significant workload. We learnt that safety concerns for the region included refugee safety, which is around the issue that many refugees have never seen or worked with machinery, and their anthropometry (the size and proportion of their bodies) is such that some, for instance, those in the Sudanese community, have very long arms which allow them to reach into places in machinery, which is very dangerous. That is the significant issue that was brought to our attention.

Other issues raised included that it can be easy for people to become subcontractors. Many are new migrants and typically they have a poor understanding of our safety laws. Also, small to medium businesses largely employ family members, and unfortunately they can purchase unsafe or unguarded equipment or imported machinery that may contain asbestos and require risk assessment to make it safe before use.

SafeWork SA also monitors the use of hazardous substances used by the farming community in the Riverland area, and that is an ongoing responsibility. Farm machinery is also an issue of concern: bailers can be quite dangerous, as can other farm machinery, and SafeWork SA finds that it can be hard to convince farmers to change their habits. They have found that they can be more effective by actually using the mechanism of talking to the Country Women's Association in an effort to convince partners that they should improve some of their safety habits.

While SafeWork SA did not raise concerns about drugs in the workplace, all the employers that we met did. They have all introduced drug and alcohol policies, and most are drug testing workers only to find that methamphetamines are a significant issue in the community. The other concern is that workers who are being detected as being under the influence do not seem to recognise the potential harm.

Recent police reports indicate that several people in the Riverland were arrested for trafficking very large amounts of illicit drugs. The challenge of distance, precarious employment for many workers and lifestyle decisions that do not align with legal and police requirements for a safe and healthy workplace is problematic for employers who want to employ reliable and safe workers.

Unfortunately, the Hon. Steph Key and the Hon. John Dawkins were unable to travel with the committee to the Riverland because of prior parliamentary commitments. As I mentioned earlier, the member for Schubert was looking forward to the visit but, sadly, the Pinery fire prevented him from doing so.

The committee has made two recommendations in its report; the first relates to the issue of illicit drugs and its impact on businesses. It may be useful to undertake an inquiry into this matter in the future. The second relates to staffing at SafeWork's regional office at Berri, which the committee expressed concern about, given the need to, effectively, educate, inform and reinforce work health and safety in the region, particularly as a result of the region having a high level of casuals and the itinerant nature of work in the region.

I would like to thank the managers and staff of all businesses we visited in the Riverland for welcoming us and providing us with an opportunity to gain a deeper and more widespread appreciation of work health and safety issues in their region. I would also like to particularly thank the committee's executive officer, Ms Sue Sedivy, for helping to organise this valuable and informative regional trip.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.A. Darley.