10:07 am, Saturday 31 October, 2009

The farming sector has the highest fatality rate among all industries and one of the highest rates of traumatic injury, as new data from workers’ compensation claims reveals.

Farmsafe Queensland, a safety rural lobby group, says that changing farm workers’ outlook onSafety Procedures is a major concern.

But rural workers’ behaviour in the workplace is evolving, due in part to the mining industry’sOccupational Health And Safety Policies.

Farmsafe Queensland executive director Jamie Cupples said the mining industry has had a positive impact on the the rural industry.

“I believe so yes. We’ve definitely seen it with the mining industry in the last couple of years taking a lot of young people away and those young people have actually come back when there was a downturn in the mining industry and they’ve brought those skills back with them, which is [a] plus for the industry,” he said.

“I know that the mining industry’s not always a good thing for agriculture, but they have been a plus in some ways.”

Safety ambassador Shane Webcke said relying solely on social legislation is not enough to prevent work-related deaths and injuries. Labourers have to take responsibility for their own safety.

“You’ve got a safety officer, that’s their drama. Safety’s no-one’s issue except yours. Absolutely yours,” he said.

“Once you get yourself sorted out, then you’re a chance of helping someone else and all of a sudden you get this knock on effect of people looking out for each other and that should be in the workplace, it should be in the farming workplace, it should be in every workplace.”

Webcke knows this by personal experience. According to him, a workplace accident was the cause of his father’s death 15 years ago, which has deeply affected his family.

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