Unpacking the Rural plant Code of Practice

Hello everyone, the Rural plant Code of Practice was updated in September 2024. So what does that mean from an industry perspective and also from a regulator point of view?

Well, let's find out from four people in the know.

My name is Ruth Thompson. I'm the Grains Policy Director for Ag Force Queensland Farmers. I'm responsible for all workplace health and safety policy and I'm also Vice Chair of Farm Safe Australia.

I'm Jasmin Smith, the project manager for Smart Ag Queensland at the Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF). I deal with training and skilling across the state.

Hi, I'm Will Lewis from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. I'm a senior advisor within our advisory field services unit and I help deliver the injury prevention and management program which provides guidance and support to businesses that need help to understand health and safety legislation, and how to apply it.

Hello, I'm Mark Lalor from the Queensland Government. I manage the Agriculture Unit for Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. I have a team of inspectors across the state that helps do the regulation of the Workplace Health and Safety Act and regulations.

Thanks everyone for joining us. Might as well start off with you, Mark.

What does a change in Code or an update in Code actually mean?

Yeah, look, a lot of the changes there were put together by a committee, including the people like QFF and AgForce, the Inspectorate Policy Unit of Work Health and Safety, and looked at what changes we've got in technology that's come on board since 20 years ago, which has been a lot, ah that included things like the use of drones and robotics and that type of thing in industry. And then also we put a lot of reference material in there for the end user to be able to find that specific items relating to that plant on the farm.

Will, from your perspective, the changes, how does that affect the day-to-day Code or how does it work in with IPAM?

Yes, a lot with our modern codes that are coming through now and as Mark had explained, it is in a plain language.

One of the common questions that I hear from all businesses, but also farmers, is that we don't understand the legislation. We don't know what we need to do to comply and we don't know where to start. And one of the good things with the Code is it's actually structured in such a way which is easily read and it answers a lot of those questions for farmers. And the stuff that  I regularly use when I do go out and speak with businesses and farmers on how to apply the safety legislation, actually pointing them to these codes. And the new update with the Rural plant Code of Practice is beautifully written, a lot of good diagrams and support and advice in there.

Ruth, it used to be a minefield. Is it better now? Is it more user friendly?

I think it is more user friendly. I think everyone in industry recognises that there's great opportunity for improvement with workplace health and safety in the agricultural sector. And AgForce and industry have really tried to work with the department as best as we can to make it really seamless, really easy. It's plain, simple language, which is often the feedback we get from primary producers is that it's overwhelming.

The language that they were using previously was very legal speak, very legislative focused. And we just tried to make it really seamless and sensible. And obtainable for everyone to understand. Also, before when you looked up the Code, was very overwhelming, was very big, there was lots of information. This round we've broken it all out, so it's easy to reference just individual parts.

We're not saying to everybody that you need to know everything that's in the Code. We're saying you need to know the things that are applicable to you and how we've structured the new Code is really easy to reference. If you just need information about augers, you can find information about augers. If you need information about autonomous vehicles or drones, that's really easy to reference. If you need info about tractors, you can find that as well.

Have you had some feedback from your members?

They all go, oh, what have they changed this time? And it wasn't necessarily about the changes or what extra legislation they're putting in place. It's just been more user friendly, easy to access. And as we've mentioned before, a few changes in regards to new technologies, wording updates, those sorts of things. So it's been quite well received and for those that are starting on their safety journey, it's a really good reference point to be able to potentially refer to things that they might know that they need improvements on their own property.

And Jasmin, you travel across the state for your job. Have you been able to talk to your members? Have you been able to get some feedback? What are your thoughts on the new Code and where it's headed and how it's going?

Thanks, Chris. I completely agree with everything Ruth said. And I think from my perspective in my role, I help growers access training and skilling. So when it comes to the Code, whilst it might not be explicitly addressed, all of the time it underpins everything that happens on farm.

And what groups like Ag Force and QFF are doing is assisting growers to assimilate the Code into their practice. So we work with professionals, who can take the Code and then apply it specifically to that type of ag business.

I think that's what I've really witnessed the most in industry is the Code is this benchmark, but then how do we make it make sense on the ground? What parts are applicable to my business? What's less applicable? What are the real intricacies of ensuring that they're operating a safe and compliant business?

Because whilst the Code covers a lot, it can't cover everything when it comes to ag. There are always going to be little bits and pieces that need to be personalised. And that's what training and skilling can really do. And I see a real synergy between the Code and providers and training and skilling to make sure these businesses are safe and compliant.

Is this where common sense comes into it, where you've got to actually what you read into a Code and how you and I'll go back to the regulators for this as well.

I love that you've brought up common sense because I think common sense is integral, but I would challenge that common sense is really a training issue. You can't know what someone else's version of common sense is, and the Code helps to smooth out some of those edges but that's where training and skilling really fills that gap.

And it goes, let's not assume that we all have the same understanding of common sense. Let's work together to make sure it's explicit what we're expecting from safety and operating with the Code.

I'm sure you come across similar things Ruth.

We love the term common sense, but it's not as easy as you think.

We love the term common sense, but many farmers will say common sense is not very common. And, you know, we're in a situation now where we recruit from a lot of urban environments, which might not necessarily have that generational knowledge that farmers and farm kids have.

So how do we bridge that divide? And I think the Code is really integral in helping baseline what is common sense, what things we should know, and be able to build on that skill set through training and making sure that everyone's singing from the same hymn sheet so that we know what's expected when it comes to farm safety.

I'll go over to the other side of our panel and go, well we mentioned common sense and that's probably looking into the Code and interpreting it the way you see it as a farmer or a business owner. But in the past, you know, common sense may have been uh okay in their eyes, but it may not have been up to standard with the Code. Now it's in black and white, is it not?

It is. And look, I always have this conversation with farmers around about we mentioned before about benchmarks and yeah, the benchmark is common sense, but common sense doesn't stand up in a court of law. And I'll keep reminding that how do you demonstrate that in law? It's not going to be through common sense. It's going to be be through what is actually in the Code of Practice and you actually are complying with that and you can demonstrate how you comply with that, whether it would be training or the safe use of the plant or maintaining that plant.

These items will come back to that Code and how we can reference inside there and give you guidance around how to do that safely and meet your obligations under the law.

So for me, it's really important to have that easily read and for the end user and for me, when I go to the farm, it's the first piece of paper that I would bring them out and say, here's the Code of Practice and we'll make reference in here to whatever area that we're working in, like we talked about, augers or tractors or silos. And it demonstrates in the Code clearly what we need from you to work safely.

Yeah, look, I just want to pick up on that term common sense again. I think one thing that we do work specifically with businesses on, and an important part of our legislation is consultation with workers, and with other duty holders.

And consultation has also spoken about in the new Code as well too. And I kind of look at, and I hear that common sense. And so one way of being able to get common sense common is when you actually speak to your workers and get a consensus on what is the work that we're doing

And the code is actually set up around particularly pieces of plant, know, tractors and farm machinery that, you know, technically it actually pulls out, well, what are the parameters that we've got to work with?

So, and the guidance that I do give your farmers when I'm working with them is how to use this Code. And I say, well, look, also, and use your staff as well too, because they're a valuable knowledge and a resource to your business. They're not the source of your problem, they're the source of your solutions. It's actually you use the Code, all its technical requirements and aspects around tractors, quad bikes, motorbikes, whatever it might be and talk to the workers who are actually using that.

How are they experiencing their work that they do on the day to day and actually discuss with them, how does that work actually marry up with what are the parameters that we've got to work with within this Code. And get that discussion going and take on board what their thoughts and feelings are about the work, what concerns that they have and potentially what solutions that they might have too.

That's a good way, think, sort of addressing that common sense issue, because I do get a sense people tend to shy away from saying that when we talk about health and safety and the regulator. But one good way of making common sense common is with that consultation approach.

Ruth, let's get into the nitty gritty.

What are some of the common workplace health and safety issues that some of your members are continually, you know, getting into?

Some of the biggest ones, and the statistics definitely back this up, on farm we have predominantly quad bike injuries. They've reduced slightly, but we've also seen a big influx of side-by-side injuries. So that tells us that it's not necessarily the gear, how we're utilizing it.

Tractors and crushing incidences are quite significant as well. And then we have a whole range of smaller plant issues with augers, anything with a conveyor belt tends to be a little bit dangerous and we also silos, anything around silos.

And fundamentally in the broad acre space, AgForce represents a significant amount of primary producers that look after livestock. Anytime you're dealing with livestock, they're a living thing that has a mind of their own. And as much as you think that you understand your cattle or your sheep, we often see a lot of injuries in yards. So that can be quite a challenge for us to overcome.

Jasmin, what about from your perspective, you know, getting out there, getting the message across, getting the training, getting it into their minds. Are there common issues that your members and people you work with have brought up that continually are challenging?

Definitely. I think what the main misconception I feel is around these issues that growers face and working in with the Code is you can't prevent everything. But if you use the Code and legislation as your blueprint and your baseline, you are at least protected if something does go wrong.

And I think that's an angle we really try to get across to growers as well, is you can't prevent everything. Farming is incredibly unpredictable. You have a lot of staff coming and going. You're using lots of different plant. It's inherently dangerous.

Training and skilling is a great way to prevent a lot of issues arising, but you cannot prevent them all. And when common sense, as we've been talking about, fails, you are protected if you have abided by the Code and the blueprints that have been provided for you.

On that note, let's talk about complacency and the old guard, the old methods. We always did it that way, that kind of language that we've heard so often in rural communities. We've done it that way all the time, it may not necessarily be the safest, but it's worked. What do you say to that?

I love that you've brought up complacency. I think that there are three silent killers and it's complacency, fatigue and rushing. And you'd struggle to go a day in farming without coming up against one of those three things but if you're aware of the risks that they can bring, you can challenge that. And I think that there's, it's pretty distressing, the stats you see about the injuries

do tend to be, the severe injuries tend to be in that older demographic, which shows that complacency is a really hidden threat to a lot of this.

And I think that comes from believing that you are immune to being injured or at risk because you've done it for so long. When continually participating in training and skilling opportunities, just refining, just tweaking your skills and your knowledge can prevent complacency and can help you connect more with your team.

It's a no brainer for me that you should be in a process of continual improvement even if you feel you don't have the time, it could save your life.

And that's always worth it.

Mark, I'll go back to you now. You spoke about earlier that common sense wouldn't stand up in a court of law. What about the she'll be right attitude? How's that going to go in court as well?

Yeah, well, that's not going to work either, Chris. But what we look for in the word is in the act there so far as reasonably practical. And that's one thing that the Code can demonstrate what's reasonably practical for a farmer to be able to look at that.

And there's another C word we talk about there. It's culture.

And with the update with the Code, I'm looking to get a change in culture in that attitude because we've done it that way for so many years and we haven't adapted, you know, with the new technology or, you know, improved guarding or equipment. And all of sudden we're making the machinery safer, but the people's attitude hasn't changed.

With the Code, I'm hoping that, you know, we can demonstrate as a regulator, we can improve your culture and we can make things safer by doing some simple things inside here.

And you're also not there to catch them out. It's not a big stick problem here, you want to work with them, don't you?

That's right. We call it sort of guided compliance, so we use our knowledge and based, look, a lot of it's on experience and my job, I see daily every notification that comes across into Workplace Health and Safety to deal with the agriculture unit.

I get one to two power line touches a week involving plant on farm and every one of those exposures is potential electrocution and death, know, or serious injury. So that's just one thing on farm we see every week, know, which alarms us, you know, and we want to get some change in that space as well.

So that's why I keep coming back to the Code of Practice that is a cultural change that we've gone through and try and make it more plain speaking for the end users. And we want these guys to be able to use it.

And Will, IPAMs like the doctor for the business, uh you know, looking to come in and give them a health check.

It's a resource and it's a 'free sourc'e which is available to all employees in Queensland, but particularly to the agricultural sector and farmers.

I work within that team so it's not just me. There's about 20-odd advisors spread throughout Queensland and we've got people like me who are based regionally as well too.

So we're not just all in Brisbane, we're in Toowoomba and Mackay and Rockhampton and Cairns as well too. Right into, we live and work in those communities as well.

And what we do for business, we will work with them one-on-one to understand their business a little better. We might understand the industry generally, but even businesses within their own industry, farmers within their own sector, all look differently, operate differently, have different structures and different individual pieces of plant and equipment.

So we're able to spend a period of time with you to understand that, help you understand those things I said before, what is the legislation, what do we need to do to comply, but particularly how to.

So we could talk you through that and give you some education on it and have a look around your farm and machinery and help you identify potentially those areas that you might be blind to and what your workers may become used to.

I know you mentioned complacency before. So I guess an opportunity for an outside eye to come in and an experienced, an expert eye from a health and safety point of view. And most definitely we use that Code as a bit of a guideline and support to do that.

But we're able to then review what you currently do and help you improve, fill some gaps in how you manage safety. And then we're able to set a better plan and then work with you over a period of time. Now, I work with businesses for up to six months and sometimes up to a year. Now, that's not their full time every day of the week, but that's through regular early meetings for one to two hours at a time, which fits in place with the busy schedule of running a business because

the ladies have already mentioned the challenges that all businesses have, but also farmers too, that there's so much that you have to do.

So we're acutely aware of that and be able to sort of slot in to meet you at your business in your time to help you understand health and safety and put together some reasonable things to help you manage it. That's what we do and that's a free service which is available to everyone.

Mark, under the Code, let's talk about responsibilities. Where does the buck stop? Who's got it?

Well, we call that the person conducting business or undertaking, the PCBU. And there's a lot of common myth out in the industry around about contractors coming onto your farm. And the contractor has to take all that responsibility when they've been engaged by the farmer. And it's quite incorrect that the duty can't be transferred onto another person coming onto the land.

You have a duty to notify of the hazards that you do have on your farm. So you as the property owner, whoever comes through your front gate, you have a duty to inform them about those hazards. And they might have specific work activity that's using a rural plant. So if we're

working side by side in there, there might be some specific duties and information you need to provide those people when they do come onto your property.

And sometimes I always make a recommendation, it's not just making a phone call, I need you to come and do a job for me. Also put in an email and saying, I'm requesting your services from there and I'm identifying the hazards that I have on there and making you aware. And that way there you are discharging your duties to that contractor coming onto your land.

Is that confusing? Ruth, from your point of view.

Contractors are really critical tools that we utilise as owners of properties. They are integral to our business. A lot of the time we might get fencing contractors in, mustering contractors, spray contractors, there's a whole range of people we bring in. But ultimately that farmer, just because you've engaged a contractor does not mean you are not responsible for workplace health and safety.

You need to make sure you're providing a safe work environment for that contractor and that contractor is operating safely. So we often advise our members that when you're getting contractors in, there's a couple of key things that you should always be asking that contractor for.

And we've got to make sure they're insured first and foremost, got to make sure that they have any sort of licenses that might be required to operate any of that gear, and they've got to make sure that they are willing to adhere to your workplace health and safety procedures on your farm and assimilate to that culture that you've got, that safety culture.

So we should be asking things like make sure you're inducting them when they come onto site.

You should also make sure that they are willing to adhere to their biosecurity obligation,

if you've got a specific biosecurity plan on your farm. And when they show up on site after you've done the paperwork and you've agreed in regards to how much you're to pay him and he's given you all his insurance information, he's done his induction, you've got to make sure that that gear that he's bringing on site, so his rural plant is actually up to scratch.

There's some really red flags that you should look out for if people show up with dirty vehicles, with old equipment that might not necessarily have any guards or anything on it. That should be a red flag. And as a primary producer, you've got to start asking yourself, do I want this person operating on my place, given that you ultimately are responsible for the safety outcomes.

Some really green flags, if they show up, they've got a clean vehicle, they've got good gear that looks like it's well maintained, they have all their guards in place, you know, they might have quad bikes, they might have side-by-sides, they might have skid steers, whatever they need to do that contracting job.

Just a quick once over, you don't need to be a mechanic, you don't need to know everything, but as farmers with pretty general knowledge in regards to some heavy vehicle equipment or just normal equipment and plant code, you'll know what looks good and what doesn't and just take that on board and consider your options.

If you're not happy with something, make sure you're having that discussion with that

contractor. As a property owner, like you say, you've got a duty to identify those hazards on your land when you've got somebody coming through your front gate. So every time you're asking somebody to come through there, that duty you have to dispense out the information that's critical that they can do their job safely and pass that information on to their workers, and that can include paid contractors but it also can include volunteers.

Recent floods we had in Queensland, we see the likes of BlazeAid come along and they're reinstating fences. And even though they're doing that as voluntary work, you still have a duty to ensure their safety  when they're actually doing that activity and identify, as I say, the hazards on farm to those volunteers and making sure that they can do that work safely with them as well.

A lot of the times when we do go to a workplace post an incident, we've got a tool there from Safe Work Australia called 'Duties in a contractual chain'.

And that document breaks that down for the PCBU to say, well, here's your duties and then how do you dispense your duties onto these contractors? And that document helps clarify that.

Has it got a flow on effect down the line, down that chain?

Yeah, and most definitely because you can engage with some contractor to do a job and then that subcontractor can contract out again and that can happen two or three times. It depends on what size of project that you've got going there.

So, and I say everyone who comes through your front gate of your farm, you've got that first duty there to engage with those people and identify the hazards on your farm and then discharge your duty by informing them.

And if you've got no records and something's happened, well then you're facing a lot of questions, you know? But if you've got sufficient information and you've discharged your duty by you've already supplied that information to those contractors, well then you're going to be doing everything reasonably practical then to ensure their safety.

As the PCBU or the owner of that property, and you've subbed and then it's gone sub again and sub again. So we're going down two or three layers. Do those underneath you have obligations to report back up to you? Or do you need to make sure that they're all compliant?

Yeah, look, there's two components here. You're looking down that chain there and Ruth mentioned there before. Like, you know, we want to ensure that these people coming on to land of bringing in safe plant equipment on there. You're discharging your duty by identifying the hazards to those people so they can operate safely.

But if they come across there, there might be an underground power line or water pump or something that's in play for them that's going to potentially cause damage to your equipment or to a worker that's operating in that area.

Yeah, they've also got a duty to bring that to you as well and it might be a case that we need to isolate that piece of equipment or power or whatever it may be for them to be able to do their jobs.

I think it's very relevant for people to understand that from an agricultural point of view, we're all about our word. We have a lot of conversations. We pick up the phone and have a chat with people.

But we advise our members that some form of record keeping is required. And that's required by the legislation. What that record keeping looks like can be different to everybody. So we mentioned an email. Other times it can be a text message. Even taking diary notes of different things is really critical to ensure that you are covering your backside.

So I think that's all really reasonable. Something that we really want to drive home in this messaging is there's nothing in this Rural plant Code that's unreasonable. Everything is really practical to do.

It might seem overwhelming if you are on the beginning of your safety journey, but there's plenty of people to be able to help you out.

In the past, words like red tape, bureaucratic have been used.

Yes.

Are you saying that's been cut down a lot now?

I'm saying that as much as the government possibly could within the scope of a government, they've done a really good job listening to industry in this case, to be able to take on board the feedback. They want to create a user friendly tool in that Rural plant Code. But obviously we have to overlay that with the realities of a government department. So I think we've found a really happy medium, which gives us what we need from an industry point of view, but also retains enough detail and legislative requirement.

Okay, what's your advice to your members then regarding the services, the Code, like in general, to work with the government?

Yeah, so in general we always advise to our primary producers that today is the day that you start. If you don't have anything in place, today is the day. So give us a call, we're happy to help you on your way.

QFF would have the same mentality that it's never too early to start and you don't have to do everything all at once. Let's start with the most dangerous things, the things that you know are dangerous on your place and let's find a way forward. We've talked about culture and safety of culture.

That takes time to turn that around and everyone's here with you on this journey to make your operation safer. We said before that we're not here with a big stick approach.

The government aren't here with a big stick approach. They're here with a supportive approach.

And we've had a number of members who've had investigations and those sorts of things where the Workplace Health and Safety team have been on farm. And all of them have come back and said it's actually been a really good journey for them, a learning journey.

None of them have had anything particularly traumatic in regards to compliance or recommendations for change on property. So I think it's all really reasonable to do.

What about Jasmin, from your point of view, from your organisation?

Completely agree with Ruth. And all I would add is this is not a journey that needs to be undertaken alone. We represent two organisations. There are so many organisations within industry.

I really recommend that any grower that's looking at starting their safety journey, as we've referenced a couple of times, reach out to a local grower group, an industry representative specific to their commodity or Ag Force or QFF who have that broader coverage to really identify someone who can help them specifically with their needs rather than just this Hail Mary out into the abyss.

Just on that, if I could ask either of you can jump in here or both.

What about the small farmer, the small business that is struggling a bit, time poor, can they get help from you guys to help them with this Code and with what they need to do?

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it doesn't matter what size you are, all farmers are time poor. I think that's the realities of operating in primary production, unfortunately, for many of us, whether it be business constraints, family constraints, we're all trying to balance quite a lot.

Small farmers, big farmers, you're all farmers and we are all here in the big agricultural family and we need to do better as a collective and we've got to take everyone on that journey.

So it doesn't matter your size. pick up the phone, have a chat. AgForce, QFF, FarmSafe Australia, we all have an abundance of free resources for you to be able to utilise, as do Workplace Health and Safety, and we're all here to help you raise industry together.

We've all got to be on this journey together to do better, because there's not enough of us farmers, and unfortunately we have some pretty bad statistics in regards to them not coming home each night, so we've got to do better.

Jasmin?

As an industry we are very committed to following through with care. So even if you are, it's just you on your farm, you don't even have staff and you need help, if you reach out, I can almost guarantee whoever you reach out to, if they're not the right person, they will help you find the right person. That's as an industry what we are very committed to, always ensuring that continuity of care.

That must be nice to hear Mark from a government point of view that, you know, the peak bodies are right in behind you looking to make this work and make it happen.

The relationship we have with these guys is really important because essentially there's about 420,000 farms out in Queensland. The reason we go to a farm is because they've had an accident and they've reported it to us.

So for us to come and pay you a visit is not generally going to happen because a lot of our time we're reacting to those accidents. So, we really rely on these industry bodies to write the word for us and say, well, here's a tool that you can use to help you with your safety management on property.

If you do get a visit from the regulator, and it is because you have had an incident on your work site, they will give you this document and it work with you to help you, you know, prevent that from happening again.

What general advice then would you give to those on the land who might be starting the journey as we've discussed a couple of times or who might be in the infancy of that trip?

The benefit with industry bodies is they focus on their particular industry whether it's cotton or grain, and they can narrow down what you really need then. So general information you can get from us, more specific you can get from industry bodies, and they will help you.

Will?

Mark does often refer farmers and businesses through to the IPAM program, where advisors like me can help. And I just want to pick up on something that Ruth said, that if you haven't started on the safety journey now, now's the best time to start. And it can feel overwhelming and there is a little bit of work to do in the first instance if you haven't done stuff already.

But exactly again what Ruth said is, we don't have to do it all at once. It's very difficult to do everything all at once. But if we can focus on what those bigger ticket, high risk items, what's going to cause some real serious injuries in your workplace, let alone the fatalities that we do see, is focus on those first.

And I hear about the word complacency again too. It's not also about how we do things on the day to day with the job, it is about improving conditions in the work environment, in the farm with the machinery and equipment.

And again, what the new Code does with that is actually set out some pretty good standards to be able to get those conditions right at the high level. So they're actually making the workplace safer, we're not having to rely on doing things the old way.

A little bit of change might have to come through if we're approaching this journey as farmers now and a new step with it. Maybe we do things a little differently in how we look after it, prepare our machinery, how we design our work. But that's the only thing that's done differently the rest of the stuff in working with your team, we can continue to work safely.

And it's not all about the paperwork either too, and I did hear that.

Wouldn't have been from me.

Yeah, the paperwork is good, it is good for that cover your backside side of things as you said, where you can keep records that, know, we've said this, we've done that. But also a lot of the paperwork is also good for good planning, knowing where you're at and be able to look forward and make those improvements.

Give IPAM a quick wrap, either give us some generic details of how many people you've helped or businesses or whatever, or give us a generic example of how you've been able to help somebody on the land change things, turn things around.

Yeah, sure.

We've worked with probably close to a thousand or more employees now. The program's been working for over 14 years, so we've had a lot of time to grow and develop and improve what we do.

And as an example for the work that we do, I have worked with some feedlots, particularly a lamb feedlot, where they haven't really approached safety in a formal way before. So the opportunity was to meet with that farmer and his team, have a look at what they do, how they do their work, be able to identify a few particular issues for them.

For those guys, it was letting lambs on and off vehicles, it was the silos, climbing up and down those to check how much grains in those and hazardous chemicals as well too, a lot of chemicals used in that business.

So they'll probably some of the bigger ticket items for those as potentially where we could have some problems. It's talked through how we actually now manage that and then put together some systems of work for them to be able to improve.

Mark, serious incidents, reportable incidents happen on the land, we can't escape that. WHSQ will come in and investigate, but that's not their sole purpose for coming into the property.

No, it's not.

And look, when we do go to property and we do find a lot where people don't have a safety management system at all, or even some basic safety knowledge around the plant that they're using, they might go and buy a really great piece of plant to help them do their job and save some money out there but they didn't realise the actual risks that they had involved by bringing this new piece of plant onto the land.

And it can be so simple, things bigger and better we can do it quicker but we've increased in height and all of a sudden we've put ourselves into that hazard area underneath the power lines because we've come closer with a bigger piece of plant so we even go back and look at that risk assessment you know what have we got on our land you know.

Do we need to increase that power line height? Do we need to put it underground and eliminate it altogether?

Maybe removing the power lines altogether and going to solar or something out there as well, so they're controls that we look at.

So Will, it's not just about an investigation then, it's about ongoing safety, isn't it?

That's right. There's two things that our department does. There is that compliance enforcement side of things, which you see from our inspectors. But there is also our advisory side of the business where we provide some guidance and support.

Yeah.

And Jasmin, you suggested at one stage and I'll get you to talk us through this one that if you're not ready to engage with the authorities themselves, then perhaps look at their resources. If you're starting out on your safety journey or you feel like you need a bit of help, then try the resources and follow that up at a later stage.

Absolutely, Chris, it can be really daunting to start this. And especially if you see yourself as in that grey area of a really small scale operation, there's a lot of free resources out there that you can engage within your own time. And especially I want to make the point of how important paperwork is and not paperwork that's filling in the boxes and hundreds of pages, just documenting what you're doing.

If you are a solo operator and you get injured on your own farm, you still fall under these codes of practice. If you haven't documented your own safety procedures, you could still be at risk for some kind of repercussions. It's worthwhile just keeping track of things simply and looking for those really easy to use, these guys have mentioned multiple times. There's lots of stuff on their sites. There's lots of stuff on AgForce's site, there's lots of stuff on QFF site.

You don't have to talk to a person if you don't feel like you're that big in that sense that it might not fit your business, but just chip away at it. Engage with a little bit here and there, there's free online toolbox talks.

There's all of these different resources that you can engage with that shows that you've done your bit to ensuring that you're safe and compliant.

And you've seen examples and you've spoken to me about examples of where they haven't followed these things and it's led to a tragedy and it's cost them not only financially but emotionally across the board. I think there's a huge misunderstanding in ag at times that is I don't have time or I don't have the money and that's all well and good and it's valid.

They're very busy. There's a lot going on. You're dealing with environmental factors. You can't lock in something six months down the line because it might be good weather that day and you need to be out on your plant, you know, it's very unpredictable.

But to put it in perspective, you might not feel you have the time or money now, but the time and money it will cost you if a tragic accident happens on farm, you couldn't spend that money in your lifetime. You're looking at millions of dollars. You're looking at years in court from one mistake. Is that worth it?

You only get so many second chances, right?

All of us have had a near miss where we go, that was close and you think about it for a little while and a few months it's fresh in your mind and then, you you'll go back out and do the same job again in the same way that you did it, that you had a near miss.

So I think that's really important to make sure that we understand that only so many second chances we get and to really think about what we're doing. There's no such thing as too small or too big to make sure you're being safe.

And you can't prevent everything. We're not, none of us here are saying  you can run a perfect safe business where nothing's going to go wrong.

But what matters is that you have taken the steps to be as safe as possible, as is reasonably possible.

We understand the realities of being on a farm. These guys understand the realities. But if you work to the blueprint, you utilise resources, if you track the safety procedures you've engaged in, you make sure you're ticking those boxes, then you're going to be a lot better off if something does go wrong than if you just had the 'she'll be right' mentality.

And Mark, statistically, every near miss brings you closer to a possible tragedy.

Yeah it does, it does.

Look, and I've been involved with the cane industry for about the last 15 years. In 2024, we had four fatalities involving rural plant in the cane industry and the regulator decided to take some action there and we made contact with the industry body and the road regulator and we did a showcase from Cairns through to Bundaberg and talked to all their representatives  around about their duties as operators and we didn't want to see a repeat of that again this year. We see the industry really at breaking point at the moment for a number of reasons but to have four fatalities, you know we have to respond as a regulator

to that and unfortunately the start of this season we've already had two incidents involving rural plant again. Fortunately they walked away with no serious injuries and then with one of those operators I went down and talked to them and they actually come along to those workshops that we ran earlier in the year. And I said, I'd given you some advice at that workshop about what you should do as a minimum for yourself to protect yourself.

And I said, did you take any of that on board? And the owner said, no, I hadn't. And he says, I realised what you're talking about now because you're sitting here talking to me. And I said, when that accident happened, young blokes walked away with a few scratches, if he would've died, it would be a totally different conversation we'd be having, and I wouldn't be so nice to you today in offering you the services of IPAM or some compliance activities that you are going to have to meet to making sure that, you know, this is not going to happen again.

So, yeah, it's quite cognisant when we see it day in, day out in our job.

All right, a question without notice for the four of you. A quick take home message for your members for today. It's got to be quick, I want it nice, sharp, short, succinct.

Ruth, you're first.

You should be doing three things.  You should be doing inductions, you should be doing competency checks for your people to make sure they know how to operate equipment and you should be doing risk assessments.

I'll take that.

It doesn't have to be hard, and you don't have to do it alone.

I like that one, Mark?

My big message is about five critical risks on farm. If you can identify your five critical risks, the things that are going to kill you or seriously injure you or your workers and you can control those risks with those five critical items, then everything else will fall into place.

Bring us home Will.

Sure, I'm down to three.

I reckon, pick your top three hazards. You already know what they are, the biggest concerns for you. Get those addressed. And talk with your workers. And if you need some help, contact me with the Injury Prevention and Management program.

Mark, just touching on that. How do you then flesh them out? You've got your top five, how do you flesh them out, and then how do you mitigate?

Yeah Chris, it's very important to identify that hazard you have to deal with on farm. Especially with that rural plant side of things. I mentioned earlier we have a lot of contact with power lines.

Quite regular notifications there. There's a lot of resources available to the user through our website. And the energy providers provide guidance, and are linked into our website as well.

That helps them identify the location on the property of power lines and the clearances that's required to keep plant away and be able to work safely beside it.

And sometimes we have to use some technology or guarding there to help protect that piece of plant from coming into contact with the lines. Some of the great technology they have now is geo-fencing with GPS inside their tractors and they can align that to the clearance zones around power lines. And it will provide a warning or even stop a tractor from driving into an area where there's power, contact could be made.

Utilising those higher order controls and technology can prevent a lot of these instances from happening on farm.

We've fleshed out our hazards and risks, talk us through the hierarchy of control, what does that mean?

We used to use an analogy called Every Sunday I Eat Apple Pie. We're looking at engineering controls, isolation controls, total elimination. It's substitution, and the lowest form is administrative control, the paper side of things . But sometimes that administrative control is really important to get the message across to your workforce, or to contractors coming onto farm.

Well thanks guys, it's been a fantastic insight into the new Code. Plenty of take-home information for those who have joined us today. On behalf of the Queensland Government, thanks for joining us and we look forward to your company again next time.

Beyond the Code, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has a raft of other useful resources to help the agriculture sector. Some are referenced in the Code, but you can also find more information by visiting www.worksafe.qld.gov.au or calling 1300 362 128.