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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-13 Daily Xml
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SAFE WORK WEEK

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Minister, will you update the council on preparations for the upcoming Safe Work Week?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:17): I would like to thank the member for his very important question. Safe Work Week in South Australia is South Australia's leading annual awareness event for occupational health, safety and welfare. It allows SafeWork SA to provide information and promote safe work practices to help reduce work-related death, injury and disease across Australia.

Since 2005, Safe Work Week and the Safe Work Awards have been a part of the national Safe Work Australia Week program coordinated by Safe Work Australia. The local Safe Work Week is presented by the Safe Work SA advisory committee in partnership with SA Unions, Business SA, WorkCover SA and the government through SafeWork SA. It features a series of relevant high-quality information sessions, together with an awards and scholarship program.

In addition to Safe Work Week in the metropolitan area, SafeWork SA has been working in partnership with regional business communities to deliver information sessions throughout the year to maximise the total outcome of the Safe Work Week. Already this year, SafeWork SA has presented to more than 1,500 people in regional locations in the lead-up to Safe Work Week. SafeWork SA will also offer on-site information sessions in the metropolitan and outer metropolitan areas from 26 September to 21 October as part of the lead-up to the Safe Work Week. These sessions are free and available to businesses with more than 20 employees and they can nominate a safety topic of their choice.

The official program of Safe Work Week 2011 is now live on the SafeWork SA website, with the key stakeholder groups participating and being invited to spread the word. The program features topical information relating to overarching themes of work health and safety harmonisation and risk management. The majority of metropolitan sessions will again be held at the Education Development Centre at Hindmarsh which proved to be a convenient venue for session attendees in 2010.

The program will offer a week of free sessions in the metropolitan area beginning Monday 24 October 2011 and concluding with the Safe Work Awards on Friday 28 October 2011. In the past, sessions on risk management, plant safety, workplace bullying and a mock trial based on a health and safety issue have proven very popular. This year's highlights include a mock occupational health and safety dispute, a mock industrial court trial, various sessions on the changing work health and safety laws and a workshop for managing teams in trouble.

SafeWork SA also introduced a further initiative to last year's Safe Work Week: Take 10@10. This year small business in particular can again take advantage of the Take 10@10 safety training materials to run their own in-house safety awareness sessions. This was a standout success last year with over 500 companies using this initiative. The Take 10@10 presentations took wideranging safety messages and advice to an estimated audience of up to 165,000 employees.

This year two new topics have been included in the Take 10@10 training packages, meaning organisations can register and receive a pack of 12 interactive 10-minute safety presentations ready to be delivered by and at the work site at a convenient time to all. The topics covered by this initiative include basic occ health and safety responsibilities, bullying, drugs and alcohol, forklifts, hazard identification and risk management, healthy workplaces, infection control, manual handling, new and young workers, occupational stress, slips, trips and falls, and working hours.

This important online resource will allow SafeWork SA to track the most popular training material in order to better guide development of the program in future years. As mentioned Safe Work Week concludes with the presentation of the Safe Work Awards on Friday 28 October. The awards highlight and reward excellence in occupational health, safety and welfare in South Australia and recognise our workplace safety champions for their achievements and innovation. This year, we saw a record 80 nominations for this year's awards, an outstanding validation of the status as a pinnacle of achievement in workplace safety.

The South Australian winners are automatically nominated for the national Safe Work Australia Awards the following April. In previous years many South Australian winners have gone on to win national awards in their category, and I wish this year's state champions all the best to continue this fine tradition.

I would encourage employers, employees and health and safety representatives from a range of organisations to register for these important free workshops on the SafeWork SA website, including the Take 10@10 training initiative. I would also encourage all members of the house to assist in whatever way they can in promoting this event. Safe Work Week 2011 presents a great opportunity for the community to get involved and help make South Australian workplaces safer.

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