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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-01 Daily Xml
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National Farm Safety Week

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (12:31): I rise today to move a very important motion. I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 20 to 25 July is National Farm Safety Week;

(b) pays tribute to the Safe Hands national farm safety campaign and other initiatives undertaken to improve farm accident statistics, including by SafeWork SA and the Rural Safety and Health Alliance; and

(c) reinforces the message for farmers not to be complacent—accidents happen to anyone regardless of age or experience.

Farming is one of Australia's most important industries. In South Australia in 2018-19, our primary industries generated over $15 billion in revenue and accounted for almost 50 per cent of our state's merchandise exports. There is no doubt that farming is big business and our agricultural industry is a rewarding place to work; however, due to the nature and type of work, it can also be one of the most dangerous. Between 2015 and 2017, South Australian agriculture accounted for 19 per cent of workplace deaths. This means that South Australian farmers are being fatally injured at a rate of almost five times their share of the workforce.

In addition to the high fatality rate, every week nine South Australian workers in primary production are seriously injured enough to access work injury insurance. Those at most risk of serious injury are workers involved in sheep, beef cattle and grain production. Some of the most common injuries suffered by farm workers are caused by tractor run overs, falling from heights and becoming trapped in unguarded equipment, as well as body stress sustained from improper manual handling and awkward postures.

Vehicle accidents account for more than 75 per cent of workplace deaths in the Australian agricultural industry. Just in the last couple of years in South Australia, I can recall on-farm fatalities at Lewiston, Tarlee, Tanunda, Willunga and Port Lincoln. Accidents with tractors tipping, hay bales rolling off loaders and falls into grain bins are all such tragic accidents, carrying a long-lasting, terrible impact on family and friends, neighbours, farming communities and local emergency services volunteers who attend the accidents.

As well as that, they have a lasting impact on SafeWork SA investigators and industry reps. The devastation affects many. I recall a campaign reminding truck operators to 'look up' after a farmer in the Mid North area was killed when he was unloading his trailer and accidentally hit overhead powerlines. In May last year, there were three incidents of tractors hitting poles: one at Crystal Brook involving a 132,000-volt line and two other incidents involving 19,000-volt lines, including one in my electorate near Moonta.

SA Power Networks reported at the time they had already had several incidents that season where farm vehicles, such as seeders, had hit Stobie poles or powerlines and that, on average, there are 20 powerline on-farm accidents every year. Other incidents occur when loads are not strapped down or secured, when tractors carry loads too high from the ground on slopes and hills, impacting the centre of gravity, and when farmers fall from heights.

SafeWork SA has done a lot of recent messaging about the dangers of portable field bins and the serious injuries that can occur during the process of manually raising or lowering them. Then there are shed mishaps, including serious burns sustained when using welders and cutting equipment, and secondary hazards which do not cause fatality but which carry long-lasting serious impacts on farmers and farm workers—things like hearing loss, ergonomic back injuries, heat stress and sunburn.

There are more than 300,000 quad bikes in use around Australia, and they are an important, popular and useful piece of farming equipment. However, in South Australia alone they have caused more than 100 injuries resulting in work claims in the last 10 years. Across Australia, quad bikes result in an average of 15 fatalities a year, highlighting just how dangerous they can be.

Tragically, every year around 12 children under 15 years of age die on Australian farms. Major causes of these fatal injuries are dams, farm vehicles and machinery, including quad bikes. National Farm Safety Week, from 20 July to 25 July, valuably aims to raise awareness of farm safety across Australia and highlight some of the practical steps farmers can take to improve the health and safety of our farm workers.

Developing on-farm health and safety guidelines needs to be just as important as planning next year's production cycle, and safety management on farms must be an integral part of every farming system. For most farmers their workplace is also their home, and sometimes the lines can blur. That is why Farm Safety Week is a good opportunity to raise awareness and highlight a number of excellent resources available to assist farmers, their workers and families to stay safe.

In 2019, the Australian federal government announced a $1.9 million grant for Farmsafe Australia under the National Farm Safety Education Fund. Farmsafe will use this funding for a revitalisation project that will enhance their existing resources and capability to promote and support activities relating to on-farm safety and ultimately reduce on-farm fatalities and injuries. In addition to this, in 2019 the Rural Safety and Health Alliance was formed.

The alliance is funded by nine rural research and development corporations and aims to address community safety and health challenges. The alliance looks to improve farm safety by investing directly in safety solutions and influencing behaviour in the agriculture workplace. It will provide leadership, education and communication to improve safety. As an example, the Safe Hands magazine was published by the alliance in 2019 for the second year and distributed across the farming community.

The National Farm Safety initiative included personal stories from those who have been impacted by farming accidents alongside information and the latest innovations, research and initiatives being undertaken to improve farm accident rates. Further to the good work being done nationally, here in South Australia SafeWork SA has undertaken an extensive education campaign focussed on farm safety.

To assist farm managers to keep their workplace safe, SafeWork SA, in partnership with Primary Producers SA, developed the Farmers’ Guidebook to Work Health and Safety and a video series focusing on common areas where workplace injuries occur. The Farmers’ Guidebook looks at every aspect of farm operations, including plant and machinery, common farm hazards like handling stock, and industry-specific hazards, such as working in silos when handling and storing grain.

The guidebook provides safety solutions and checklists for farmers to use to identify workplace health and safety issues on their farm. Each section also has a set of quick safety scans, to help farmers carry out a self-audit to measure how well they are currently doing and to identify areas for improvement, and template forms and records that may assist farmers to document their work. The guidebook is accompanied by farm safety videos, which focus on the most common causes of injury and which are a part of an ongoing SafeWork SA education campaign aimed at reducing injuries by engaging farmers and improving safety and awareness.

The guidebook and video series are aimed at taking the guesswork out of managing the risks and knowing what is expected when it comes to health and safety standards, including understanding the farm business owner's legal obligations. They provide simple and practical safety solutions and tips to help farmers uphold their responsibilities and make their farm, family and workers safe. All of these things are important if we are to go any way to preventing further workplace injuries or death.

These resources and campaigns, along with many others, aim to raise awareness of health and safety in the workplace, encourage conversations about safety at work and support positive safety culture. Farm owners and workers must be alert to and understand the risks of the work they do each and every day. It is also crucial to remember that farm safety is not just about the physical risks and dangers. Recent events such as the drought, bushfires and COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted once again the devastating psychological toll taken on our farmers.

Work-related stress and mental illness can cause both psychological and physical injury. The suicide rate for Australia's farming men is about double the general male population's rate. I am aware of the considerable vital work being done and the support offered across the Narungga electorate by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the many community-minded volunteers involved in the SOS Yorkes and SOS Copper Coast suicide prevention networks. Long may this valuable work continue.

Isolation and difficulty accessing services are some of the challenges faced by our farmers. Many farmers work alone in remote areas under extremely difficult circumstances. When in need, it is vital that farmers understand the importance of seeking help. We must ensure we have the assistance and resources in place to provide them with the support they need. Help and support can come from a range of sources such as friends and neighbours as well as the more formal government agencies, authorities and services.

In the last 12 months, the Marshall Liberal government has committed more than $420 million to mental health and has funded a number of initiatives to provide farmers with accessible mental health and resilience services. The mental health and wellbeing of those in our rural communities who are struggling with day-to-day life or affected by adversity such as drought, fires or COVID-19 is a priority that this government takes extremely seriously.

The Rural Financial Counselling Service is doing an outstanding job not only in providing support for our farmers applying for the Farm Household Allowance but also in creating greater resilience in rural communities. The service, which is funded by both state and federal governments, aims to reduce the immediate burden on our farming community and assist our farmers in getting through the drought. Door-to-door support members can assist in ensuring people are able to access technical advice, drought assistance and other support measures available through government, non-government, community and charity networks.

A targeted mental health and wellbeing assistance program led by Wellbeing SA is being rolled out to all residents of South Australia's bushfire affected areas. The $2.61 million package builds on the initial bushfire response and aims to provide support for long-term recovery in the communities that were severely impacted by the summer bushfires. Farmers may be struggling with additional worries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the South Australian COVID-19 Virtual Support Network a new support line has been created to provide a localised service for South Australians who need additional mental health support. We also have in place our Family and Business Support Program, which is run by an independent team of experienced professionals who can offer independent, confidential support free of charge to farmers. It is vital that we support and strengthen the resilience of our farmers and rural communities.

National Farm Safety Week does a great job in highlighting these issues and responsibilities, but it is only one week a year. All farmers must focus on farm safety every day of the year. The ongoing safety of agricultural workers is fundamental in ensuring a sustainable and secure future for generations to come. I urge all farmers to stay safe by keeping up to date with farm safety issues, accessing the many useful resources and maintaining work health and safety standards. They must take the time to consider how they can reduce incidents, accidents and avoid deaths on their property.

There were multiple farm accidents in South Australia in the last two years due to myriad causes, so the vital message this National Farm Safety Week is for farmers not to be complacent even if it is a task that you have done thousands of times before or you are under the pump because you have to beat the weather that is coming or get to the grain to the silo before it shuts or you are under stress because you are behind with your end of financial year bookwork or you are tired because you have been working for 14 hours straight again.

Every Australian has the right to return home from work at the end of the day healthy and uninjured. Unfortunately, on our farms this is not always the case. I encourage everyone to take a moment to consider safety in their workplace and to understand that the vast majority of fatalities and serious injuries are preventable. Weeks such as National Farm Safety Week offer timely reminders to take care. Complacency can be dangerous and accidents can happen to anyone regardless of age and experience. I commend the motion to the house.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (12:44): I also rise in support of this motion. As the member said, it is an incredibly important issue. It is one of those issues that, when you look at it, comes down to life and death or serious injury. In a previous life, I was a rehabilitation consultant and I worked with a lot of people with work-based injuries. A lot of them fell into that musculoskeletal range of injury, but some injuries were incredibly traumatic and incredibly serious.

During my time working as a rehabilitation consultant for about eight years, most of my work was taken up with people in the mining industry and heavy industry when it came to resource processing and contractors that fed into those processes. However, I had some clients who worked in the primary industry sector, some in the pastoral regions of our state who had quite serious crush injuries as a result of being crushed up against fencing by cattle, and others down in the grain growing parts of our state who had—if I can put it this way—run-of-the-mill musculoskeletal injuries that did have an impact on them and it took some time for them to get back to work.

Farming, by its nature, has generated a significant number of deaths and serious injuries over the years. Indeed, when you look at the national figures, when it comes to deaths and serious injuries, it is the transport, postal and warehousing sector that usually tops the list, but coming next generally—and sometimes construction overtakes—agriculture, forestry and fishing are where you have significant injuries and a significant number of deaths per year.

When I first started working as a rehabilitation consultant, as I said, I was exposed to some very traumatic injuries in heavy industry. The number of deaths started to change, and the number of serious injuries started to change when owners and senior management took safety seriously. Once upon a time, they did not take it with the seriousness that was needed. It was almost seen as 'Oh, we're going to lose people; we're going to get serious injuries.' That was almost par for the course and almost culturally accepted in the ranks of senior management in some of our bigger industries.

It happened when management, with pressure from the union movement and others, decided to take injury and death seriously, and in a lot of those heavy industries we have seen a serious decline. In some respects, that is easier once that cultural shift takes place because we do have large companies. When you look at South Australia, there are just under 10,000 farms, so there is a degree of complexity, there is a degree of approaches that are going to be diverse, and it is going to come down to the individuals on those farms.

What has clearly happened over the years is that there has been a change in primary industries when it comes to injury and death. The priority given to it and the consciousness given to it has improved over time to the point that in the last decade or so the number of deaths and serious injuries in the primary industry sector has declined significantly. However, it is still too high and we want to see further decline.

The member for Narungga pointed to a number of programs and initiatives in place, and they all help. They all help to get the message across. They all help with the practical approaches on the ground that can lead to improvements. One of the disturbing elements on farms is the number of young people, children, who die. They are part of the farm because it is part of the family business, and it is tragic for the families involved and for their communities. There has been a focus on how we reduce that, just as there has been a focus on ensuring adults do not put themselves in the way of harm.

This is an important motion. Anything we can do at a state level, through the various agencies, to assist people to do the right thing, to work safely, is to be actively encouraged. We just need to continue to drive down the figures; the trends are good, but one death is one death too many and one serious injury is one serious injury too many. We know what the impact is on the family and on the broader community.

This is something that has strong bipartisan support; a year or two ago I was the one up there moving this particular motion. I will conclude now, because I know there are primary producers on the other side who have lived experience and who might want the opportunity to speak—perhaps the member for MacKillop is eager to get up and have something to say.

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (12:51): I rise today to speak to the motion moved by the member for Narungga in relation to the importance of National Farm Safety Week, including that this house acknowledges National Farm Safety Week, amongst many other points, to cut it a bit shorter. I would also like to thank the member for Giles for his contribution; he is a regional member as well as the shadow ag minister. I thank the member for Narungga for bringing this motion to the house. The importance of farming to his electorate is substantial, as it is to mine. Those who live on the land, including myself, who both grew up on a farm and raised my own family on a farm, know that farm safety is critically important.

Farming businesses and drivers of safety risk can be hugely variable. Farm safety risks vary on the enterprises undertaken, on whether a farm has an emphasis on cropping, livestock, whether it is extensively farmed or is on a broadacre scale run on pastoral country, milk production, horticulture, viticulture, an integrated combination of any of these or an array of other farming enterprises. It does not matter whether the farm is run as a family business or by a large multinational company, risks need to be managed and people need to be kept safe. It is an unfortunate statistic that between 2015 and 2017 South Australian agriculture accounted for 19 per cent of workplace deaths.

People are important, and farms are places of employment where people come to work to earn a living. Like any other workplace, these employees have a right to work in a safe environment where risks to their wellbeing are managed. Farms engage people in a range of capacities, from self-employed farming families to seasonal contractors such as shearing teams, pruners, harvesters and the like. The day-to-day running of farming businesses can involve significant numbers of ongoing employees and, like any business, we want to make sure that people are able to work effectively and, importantly, safely.

Farms are also homes and places where families are raised. It is part of the attractiveness of living on the land that in growing up on a farm we are afforded a great many freedoms, experiences and opportunities that our city counterparts do not have access to. The opportunity to learn to ride a motorbike and drive a ute at an early age, the ability to get involved in animal handling, horseriding, sheep and cattle mustering and drafting are unique and special features of living and growing up on a farm.

With these enterprises and activities happening effectively and literally in our backyards, we also need to ensure that our families are safe. National Farm Safety Week, which runs from 20 to 25 July, reminds us all of the importance of farm safety and the support available to better manage risks on farms. In South Australia, SafeWork SA continues to play a key role in working with business and the various agricultural sectors to improve health and safety outcomes.

Common workplace injuries sustained on farms include being hit by moving objects and hitting objects, animals in particular; injury through manual handling activities, for example, lifting and dragging heavy objects such as chemical drums, machinery parts or sheep for shearing and crutching; falls, trips and slips; and vehicle accidents.

From a practical point of view, for those who are not familiar with farming, some examples of the types of occupations that are vulnerable to injury are livestock workers, where occupational hazards to guard against include crush injuries; vineyard workers and fruit orchard workers, where occupational hazards include the use of ladders, pruning shears and repetitive tasks; and shearers, where occupational hazards to guard against include strains and body stresses from the handling of sheep.

I thought I would touch on a couple of the issues and incidents that I have seen in the past in my small farming career so far. I have never seen a death, and I hope that remains the case in my neck of the woods, that is, locally, but I have seen some horrific accidents. A local farmer was working around his PTO-driven spray unit. He leant over that PTO shaft, which did not have the cover on it. At the time, back in those days—we are going back a few years now—it was not illegal for an owner farmer to have a PTO shaft without a cover. His clothes got encapsulated in the shaft and he was completely stripped of all his clothes and thrown out the other side.

Although bruised and scratched and barely able to walk, he did manage to walk to safety, nearly naked, I think, but for his underwear and some boots and socks. That is the sort of horrific, easy, quick accident, where the mind was not set on safety. He was trying to get a job done and the cause of injury was basically just negligence on two fronts: firstly, the shaft should have had a cover, and I believe all shafts are covered these days by law; and, secondly, you have to be aware that there are dangers all the time, and you have to be absolutely prepared for and aware of such issues.

Another incident that comes to mind is another local accident in my region, where a young girl was drilling a hole for a post with an auger. She was down trying to move the spill from that hole, which is the soil. Her hair became wrapped in the auger and it scalped her, right around the top of the head. That was able to be put back and she now lives a normal life, but that is another split-second incident that becomes an accident, where it can be a matter of life and death within a second.

Cattle injuries are really quite common. Cattle have a tendency to be either beautifully natured or mad in the head. The mad in the head animals, when they are put under stress and in yards—obviously, we want them to go where we want them to go, not where they want to go—do not always leave the people operating them with the best opportunity to get out of the way quickly enough or be in the right spot at the right time, hence why these injuries will probably come again and again.

When you are dealing with big animals—and I am talking 500 kilos to 1,000 kilos—they can have a mind of their own. If they do not want to do something and they become intense or irate, then it does put people at risk. All we say in this area is to be aware, understanding that it is not your world, it is theirs, and we should do everything we can to avoid it.

Motorbike accidents in our area are most common as well. Only recently, there was an accident in our region again. A newish motorbike rider was mustering stock. It was getting close to the end of the day—5.30—and getting to that darkish period. He was going too fast and rode into a fence because he could not see it, trying to open a gate quickly to get the stock through. He broke his leg and had a compound fracture on that leg. It was a difficult accident, a new learner.

What were the two things that went wrong with that accident? The speed was excessive and, secondly, he was not driving to the conditions and he was new. He should have been going slowly in the first place because he did not know the lay of the land. These accidents will happen, do happen and what is most important is that we put the processes in place to try to alleviate them, so that people can actually get home safely. Going to hospital in an ambulance is not a good outcome.

One of the deaths in the industry that I did see in my time—it was not in my neck of the woods, but it was in South Australia—was the death of a shearer. The shearer was shearing a sheep. The sheep kicked and rattled, not free but it obviously did it in a way that put the shearer in a vulnerable position. The handpiece went up into the neck of shearer, cut one of the main arteries to the head and he bled to death because they could not stop the blood from flowing on the board.

It was a very tragic set of circumstances. No-one did anything severely wrong. It was just one of those accidents. When you are dealing with animals, these sorts of things happen and should be avoided in all cases. I will just finish off here. Organisations such as Farmsafe Australia, which have a number of agricultural sector partners that span a number of states, also take communicating the importance of farm safety and risk seriously. I commend this motion and thank everyone for speaking to it. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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