NSW: School Goes Into Lock-Down After A Gang Stormed It

Saturday April 12 2008 12:07 p.m. Source: The Daily Telegraph

It was the start of a typical school week at Merrylands High School on Monday morning with the school community gathering for assembly. About 750 students and their teachers were in the school quadrangle.

While the school has security fencing, the gates were open for students who were running late.

But at 8.50am, chaos erupted when five boys aged 14 to 16 dressed in jeans and hooded jumpers stormed the assembly, making threats with baseball bats, machetes and a samurai sword.

School principal Liliana Mularczyk yelled out "lock-down" - and the teachers quickly ushered their students inside classrooms.

The gang of boys pursued them, searching for a student over a perceived slight said to be about one of their cousins. Using their weapons, they smashed their way through glass windows to gain access to the classrooms.

Two teachers and seven students - three of them female - were injured after being assaulted and cut by flying glass. And when police stormed the school six minutes after the original attack, the attackers - four of whom were of Pacific Islander background and one of Middle Eastern origin - showed no fear. The youths, who are associated with a Guildford-based gang known as Gee40, laughed while in police custody and claimed there was more to come in their reign of terror.

The horrifying incident this week highlighted the youth gang culture in Sydney's west - the teenagers trying to turn their parents' adopted country into American-style gangland territory.

Students from Merrylands High were well aware of the existence of Gee40 and other gangs with members of Pacific Islander background that have proliferated in Sydney's west and use various internet sites to boast of their exploits.

One Year 11 student at Merrylands High School says he knows of about 20 students at the school who claimed to be part of Gee40.

"They yell out 'Gee40' in class to get attention and they used to walk around the schoolyard saying it," he says. "But they're basically a bunch of wannabe gangsters who are dangerous and violent.

"I think they are being tough to get the attention of the crowd."

Fights between students of Pacific Islander and Lebanese background are also common, he says. Rival groups often gather in sep- arate parts of the playground to call insults to each other during the day. He says the students gather in groups of between 30 and 40.

"The groups have their own territories," he says. "So there are some corners of the school that you know not to go into . . . if you go there, these people will throw things at you or call you names."

And he says fights between the rival groups occur every few weeks.

"There are often bins flying around and groups yelling insults at each other," the student says.

"Some students have been taken out of the school by their parents because they don't feel safe."

But Merrylands - and neighbouring Guildford - are not the only places where similar gangs exist.

Internet searches reveal they are also active in Fairfield, Parramatta, Liverpool, Punchbowl, Granville, Auburn, Mount Druitt and Auburn.

They are made up largely of a mixture of youths of Pacific Islander and Middle Eastern background. Their favoured websites seem to be Bebo.com and YouTube. It's on here they boast of their exploits, using American "gangsta"-style words and pictures.

"F . . . da cops" is a common refrain, and they often refer to themselves as "souljahs" (soldiers).

Piles of money, handguns, rifles, machetes and metal bars are featured on their slide shows, which are accompanied by "gangsta" rap music. Another common word used is "reprezent" - that is, they claim their territory according to postcode and issue threats to other gangs. On one site, entitled Granville Boys High, youths warn other "skools" that should "stay out of their way" include Parra- matta High, Merrylands High and Fairfield High.

"Oi lads or u need 2 noe dont fu . . . around alrite coz we will f . . .en kill u . . . coz we from granville boiz and we are f . . .in notorious motherf . . .ers aighht!!" the page reads.

They boast of being "wanted" by police and going to jail for a long list of offences. There are home movies of brawls and bashings on school grounds. Some of it isn't idle boasting: court reports following the Merrylands High School incident this week showed that many of the members do indeed have criminal records.

One of the youths had a prior aggravated robbery conviction.

Another, a Granville Boys High student, was on bail after being arrested on armed robbery charges last week. One of his co-accused is related to two brothers who are currently in jail.

The boy is believed to be closely linked to Gee40 and last week the courts banned the accused Granville Boys High student from associating with him. What is also emerging is a number of other Pacific Islander youth gangs in Sydney's west. These include the Crazy Little Coconuts (CLC), CB4, KVT (standing for I am Fijian in Fijian), and in Mount Druitt, The Bloods and FBI (Full-Blooded Islander). Investigators are now online trawling through a number of websites trying to determine the criminality of those pictured.

As Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione pointed out, the internet boasting is a new phenomenon that police can quickly turn to their advantage in identifying criminals.

But what has Scipione most concerned about is the obvious question: where are the parents of these so-called gangsters?

"What happened at Merrylands was disgraceful," he says.

"They're teenagers, so where are their parents? Families can't outsource parenting to the state through our police or teachers."

He says it comes back to parents taking greater responsibility for the actions of their children.

"They're 14, 15, 16 years old - they are children and they need strong parental control," he says.

Indeed, of the five accused, only one had family members turn up at Parramatta Children's Court complex to find out what was happening with their child's court matter.

And Auburn-based Pacific Islander youth worker Michael Tupou says there are some parents who simply don't care what their children are up to. But he also points to the relatively lax system in Australia available to discipline young people through family, schools and the juvenile criminal justice system.

Tupou, who met Merrylands police along with other Tongan and church leaders to discuss the problem, says many youths from Pacific Islander families are not being disciplined.

Their parents, many of them devout Christians who came to Australia for a better life, have been raised with strict discipline - which meant a belting when they stepped out of line.

But, he says, the Australian system does not allow them to follow this tradition - and their children are well aware.

"I know a lot of parents who try to smack their kids and the kids usually go and get the police to charge the parents (with assault)," Tupou says.

Similarly, police and teachers go soft on youths. He says they know they can get away with virtually anything. Even when they do go into juvenile detention, they treat it as a lark. And threats of deportation if they are non-citizens and commit crimes no longer exists, he says.

"It's not going to stop until the rules are changed," he says

SA: Union Unable To Secure WorkCover Debate

Friday April 11 2008 11:49 a.m. Source: ABC News

South Australian unions have failed in their bid to get a special state convention of the Labor Party to debate the Government's WorkCover Bill.

A motion put to the party's state executive meeting has been defeated by six votes.

Unions are opposed to the legislation to reduce benefits paid to injured workers.

Andy Dennard from the Australian Services Union says unions are disappointed with the executive meeting's outcome.

"There's no doubt that there's a lot of dissatisfaction within the party, including the parliamentary party, in relation to this issue and that the party is divided on this issue," he said.

"We believe the only way it's going to be properly resolved is by allowing this issue to go to the broader party to make a decision about what direction the party has been taking."

Labor MP Tom Koutsantonis says the Labor executive made the right decision.

"The union movement had its view, we had our view, the party has prevailed, the Premier has prevailed," he said.

WorkCover Work Method Statements

QLD: Two Men Critically Injured in Helicopter Crash

Thursday April 10 2008 9:20 a.m. Source: Cairns Local News

TOLGA pilot David Goodrich and his co-pilot were seriously injured when their helicopter plunged 20m to the ground north of Townsville, yesterday morning.

About a dozen workmen watched in horror as the chopper’s engine cut out, sending the out-of-control aircraft plummeting to the ground behind Xstrata’s Copper Refinery at the suburb of Stuart about 10am.

The two-seater Aeropower turboshaft helicopter, which had been sub-contracted by Downer EDI Engineering, was stringing high voltage powerlines when it suddenly went down.

Both men were conscious when emergency workers arrived but in obvious pain.

It took firefighters about 45 minutes to free 36-year-old Mr Goodrich, who was rushed to Townsville Hospital with suspected spinal injuries.

He was operated on following the crash and was listed in a serious condition last night.

The co-pilot, a 38-year-old Rockhampton man, was able to free himself from the helicopter wreckage but was also hospitalised after collapsing at the crash site.

He was released yesterday afternoon.

The aircraft landed so heavily that the chopper’s skids were crushed.

Thick electrical cables the helicopter was attempting to string lay snaked across the ground surrounding the wreck.

The helicopter landed in grasslands, narrowly missing electrical transformers, several fences and nearby buildings.

Wulguru Station Officer Alun Williams said firefighters used the jaws-of-life to cut away the helicopter’s controls to safely remove the injured pilot.

"He (the pilot) was encased so we wanted to get him out safely because QAS were worried about back injuries," he said.

"The pilot controls had to be removed to get the pilot out, but the co-pilot was already out."

Mr Williams said the two men were lucky to escape alive.

"It’s (the helicopter’s) come down fairly hard.

"The skids are actually perpendicular to the ground so they’ve come down fairly hard."

Stuart Police Station’s Sen-Sgt Ian Wilkie said more than a dozen witnesses would be interviewed by police.

He said the cause of the crash was so-far unknown.

Officers from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau flew to Townsville yesterday afternoon to investigate the crash.

Department of Workplace Health and Safety also arrived at the crash site to investigate

Working Around Helicopters Work Method Statements

NSW: Man Dead After Work Place Accident

Wednesday April 9 2008 10:39 a.m. Source: ABC News

A man injured in an industrial accident at Grafton last week has died from his injuries.

The 35-year-old man was hit by a falling section of formwork weighing 200 kilograms at a construction site on Fitzroy Avenue.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and WorkCover were at the site of the accident this morning trying to work out the sequence of events that led to the accident.

The CFMEU's state organiser, Jim Hutcheon, says he will be looking into work practices on the job site.

"People should be outraged that in this day and age it once again seems that profit is more important than safety," he said.

"There's been corners cut, there's no doubt about it.

"We can see that the systems put in place for the particular function the gentleman was performing, they went terribly askew and fail-safes weren't put in place.

Construction Site Work Method Statements

SA: Paramedics Take Stand

Tuesday April 8 2008 10:24 a.m. Source: ABC News

South Australia's paramedics will begin work bans this week in protest against the Government's proposed changes to WorkCover.

Under the changes, injured worker benefits would be cut by 10 per cent after 13 weeks.

The Ambulance Employees Association says one in three paramedics suffers workplace injuries and often takes more than 13 weeks to recover.

Secretary Phil Palmer says members will start industrial action on high risk jobs.

"Our members do a lot of travelling at night, transferring patients from rural areas to the metropolitan area, we'll be placing bans on night driving," he said.

"It's a bit of a risk, and our members get injured in a car vehicle accident and they are off for more than 13 weeks and get their pay reduced. It's an outrage.

Workplace Health and Safety Work Method Statements

WA: Female Vets Face Higher Miscarriage Risk

Monday April 7 2008 11:36 a.m. Source: All Headline News

According to a study, female veterinarians doubled their risk of miscarriage because of increased exposure to anesthetic gases, pesticides and X-rays.

The study was conducted by the University of Western Australia. It serves as a warning for all young female veterinarians, who must know the inherent risks should they want to get pregnant.

Breathing nitrous oxide, used in anesthesia, has long been known to cause miscarriage.

The study's lead researcher, Dr. Adeleh Shirangi told BBC news , "Prior to our study, there had been very little research looking at female vets' exposures to occupational hazards and how this affects their health.

"We found that many of the vets surveyed either didn't have the safety equipment in their practices, or they had the equipment but weren't using it correctly.

"We hope that our research will make vets aware of the need to fully protect themselves whilst they are working, especially if they planning to have a baby."

The Australian researchers surveyed 2,800 veterinarians about their known exposure to anesthetic gases, pesticides and X-rays. Those who were exposed to anesthetic gases and pesticides for an hour or more a week had 2.5 chance of miscarriage. Those who performed x-rays more than five times a week had 1.8 times the chance of miscarriage. Miscarriage is defined as the loss of a baby before the 24th week of pregnancy.

This prompts the authors to sound a warning to female vets who are of childbearing age, that they "should be fully informed of the possible reproductive effects of ionizing radiation, unscavenged anesthetic gases, and exposure to pesticides." Thus, they advise that these women should take protective measures when planning to conceive and during gestation.

Safe Work Environment Work Method Statements

AU: Longer Working Lifespan Expected

Monday April 7 2008 9:23 a.m. Source: http://www.sciencealert.com.au

An extended working life is expected to become the norm in coming years and early research into what is shaping as a historic sociological phenomenon is starting to clarify some of the central challenges and opportunities that an older workforce will generate.

One observation already noted is an increasing variation in people’s abilities as they get older.

Professor Philip Taylor, director of the Business, Work and Ageing Centre for Research at Swinburne University of Technology, says that in terms of job performance, wellbeing and skills, older workers are a much less homogenous group than younger workers.

For Australian employers, who are becoming more reliant on the participation of older workers, that reality creates two challenges: how workplaces can accommodate those variations, and how to minimise the risk of workers losing competencies and abilities as they age.

Part of the answer may be in preparing workers when they are younger, for a longer working life.

"Policy around ageing workers needs to be about maintaining the ‘work ability’ of people throughout their life-course – not just once they are older," Professor Taylor says. "It’s about life-long learning and about how factors such as job design, work environment and skills training determine the condition in which workers arrive at the age of 50."

The Business, Work and Ageing Centre for Research at Swinburne was set up in 2001 to look at the economic and social consequences of workforce ageing. In the 1980s the emphasis was on early retirement as a way of making room for younger workers, but from the mid-1990s governments grew concerned about the threats of an ageing population and its impact on the costs of social welfare and on the possibility of labour shortages. "One way to deal with these problems was to extend people’s working lives," Professor Taylor says.

But encouraging people to work longer requires employers to adjust their attitudes and practices to accommodate to the needs of their older workers: "Many managers don’t understand how to manage older workers because so many were divested from the workforce in the 1980s."

There’s an assumption, for instance, that older workers are not interested in, or capable of, further training, but Professor Taylor says the centre’s research has shown there is no evidence of that.

"What the evidence does show is that older workers prefer a different style of training than younger workers. For instance, they prefer hands-on practical training rather than classroom-style training."

The centre has been involved in a number of major projects to help businesses adapt to the needs of older workers, and to help older workers adapt to the need to extend their working lives. The Redesigning Work for an Ageing Society project, which received funding under the Australian Research Council Linkages Scheme, has partnered with companies including Qantas, RACV, Laminex and the Australian Catholic University, to identify factors within a workplace and within individuals that affect so-called ‘work ability’. The ‘work ability’ model was developed by the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health (FIOH) and takes the view that a person’s fitness for work combines a life-long process of building skills and competencies with the physical, mental and social demands created by the work environment.

Another of the centre’s projects, Managing Employment Pathways to Reintegrate Older Workers, is headed by the director of research, Dr Elizabeth Brooke, and aims to help older unemployed workers reintegrate into the workforce. Funded by the VicHealth Public Health Research Fellowship, the project is targeting workers aged 45 and over who have become involuntarily unemployed, as well as injured older workers, volunteers and others unsuccessful in their efforts to return to work.

"We are wanting to work with people who for whatever reason have had a discontinuous work experience," Dr Brooke says.

The project aims to identify barriers that prevent people reintegrating into the workforce and to develop a program to support them to rebuild the confidence and skills needed to re-enter and stay in employment.

With its holistic approach to employment services, the project starts from the premise that wellbeing and self-perception are as important to an individual’s employability as are skills and competencies. "Currently, there is no employment services model that takes a holistic integrated approach across healthy lifestyle promotion and motivational factors, including self-perceptions of capacity, skills and age awareness," Dr Brooke says.

The project will partner with existing community services to provide healthy-lifestyle and confidence-building programs as well as skills training. Dr Brooke is recruiting participants to the program this year. Participants will be helped into employment within the aged care sector and, once employed, will be monitored to identify what factors, if any, impact on their retention in the workplace. "These may, for example, include more flexible working arrangements, better ergonomics or rotation of tasks to prevent repetitive strain injuries," she says.

Professor Taylor says another major issue for older workers is a sense of exclusion from the workplace. "Our research shows that older workers often feel they are being pushed out by not being invited to take part in training, meetings or other workplace events." This will become an increasing issue as more workers take advantage of transition-to-retirement arrangements that allow them to work part-time. "Part-time work is often not seen as real work. Managers need to be re-educated to respect different kinds of working arrangements and accept that older workers have a great deal to contribute to the workplace."

Work Place Health and Safety Tips

VIC: Fatal Wall Collapse

A woman has died when a shop wall collapsed on her in the Melbourne suburb of Mentone.

The city is being blasted by high winds, creating chaos for police and emergency services.

Police believe the woman was walking through a laneway opposite the post office when the wall collapsed.

Ambulance spokesman Paul Bentley says the accident happened in Florence street just after 2:00 pm (AEDT).

"The woman aged in her sixties who has been killed in this accident is the only person to have suffered any injuries," he said.

"Paramedics arrived to find the woman had initially been under some bricks. Some bystanders had cleared some of those bricks away but unfortunately the woman died at the scene."

Police say it is unclear at this stage if the accident is weather-related.

WorkSafe officials are investigating whether the wind played any part in this morning's fatal building site collapse at Dandenong South.

A 47-year-old Langwarrin man who was working on the site was killed, when part of the steel structure collapsed

Emergency Safe Work Method Statements

NSW: Construction Site Form Work Accident

Saturday April 5 2008 8:46 a.m. Source: ABC News

A 35-year-old man remains in intensive care at a Sydney hospital after an industrial accident on the north coast of New South Wales yesterday.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union says the man suffered serious head and facial injuries when he was hit by a falling section of formwork weighing 200 kilograms at a construction site in Grafton.

The man was flown from Grafton to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital yesterday.

The CFMEU's Jim Hutcheon says the builder needs to carry out a full review of safety procedures at the site to ensure the same thing does not happen again.

"While [the injured man's] condition is stabilising they are still very concerned about him," he said.

"We will be asking the company to make available all their information.

"At the moment we have visited that site before, we do have some concerns over the general safety."

Construction Safe Work Method Statements

QLD: Miners Killed At Work Remembered

Saturday April 5 2008 Source: The Daily

Queenslanders will be asked to reflect on some of the state's worst mining tragedies as part of a new memorial day to honour those killed on the job.

The state government announced plans to hold an annual day to commemorate the lives of more than 1,450 miners killed since mining began in Queensland in the 1800s.

Mines Minister Geoff Wilson said the first event would be held on the anniversary of the worst mining disaster in the state's history.

On September 19, 1921, 75 miners were killed in a coal dust explosion at Mount Mulligan in far north Queensland.

"Mining has helped forge our strong economy here in Queensland, from the gold rush days of the 1800s, right up to the multi-billion dollar industry that is now powering the state," Mr Wilson said.

"While we enjoy the benefits of the resources boom, we should reflect on how we got here and the price that has been paid."

It was still unknown what the day would involve, but a steering committee with union and industry representatives is being set up to organise the event.

Several Queensland areas such as Collinsville, Ipswich and Moura already hold separate events to commemorate local mining disasters.

The idea of a statewide memorial day has the support of the Australian Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).

QRC chief executive Michael Roche said mining was full of hazards.

"Sometimes those hazards turn into tragedies," he said.

"By focusing on those tragedies ... (it) causes us to redouble our efforts for making sure that we drive towards zero harm."

Mr Wilson said six people had been killed in mining accidents in Queensland over the past 18 months, but safety was improving.

VIC: Storm Clean Up Claims Life Of Energy Safe Worker

Thursday April 3 2008 Source: The Age

A power worker has died trying to restore power to a storm-hit area south of Melbourne this afternoon, the latest in at least two deaths related to yesterday's wild weather.

A police spokeswoman said the Somerville man, 38, was electrocuted as he worked to repair a power pole and power lines in Shandon Street, Mornington.

A passerby witnessed the incident and flagged down a police car.

Paramedics were called about 12.30pm but had to wait about 90 minutes for power to be cut before they could reach the man. The worker was pronounced dead and his body retrieved about 2pm.

A spokeswoman for power supplier Alinta said the company was preparing a statement about the death of an employee.

Bayside Mornington, about 45 kilometres south of Melbourne, was one of the hardest hit areas as winds up to 130 km/h lashed the state yesterday. Falling power lines set fire to a house in Mornington while dozens of yachts were driven ashore or sunk in Mornington harbour.

At the height of the storm, a woman, 57, died when a brick wall collapsed on her at Mentone. And police said investigations were continuing into whether the death of a worker under fallen scaffolding at a Dandenong building site yesterday was also weather-related.

WorkSafe and Energy Safe Victoria inspectors were sent to the scene of today's tragedy.

"Two (workplace) deaths in two days is too many,'' said WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt.

A police spokeswoman said a report would be prepared for the coroner.

VIC: Construction Worker Killed By Girder

Wednesday March 2 2008 Source: Star News

A 47-YEAR-OLD Langwarrin man was killed after a building under construction in Dandenong South collapsed this week.

Police said the man, a construction worker, was killed by a falling girder at the building site on the corner of Southpark Drive and Greens Road, Dandenong South.

The incident happened just after 7am today

WorkSafe and Dandenong police are investigating the death and will prepare a report for the coroner.

No one else was injured in the incident.