Defence Occupational Health and Safety Strategy 2007-2012

Our commitment

"Through leadership and individual commitment, Defence will continue to place a high priority on the occupational health and safety (OHS) of its people, thus protecting them and enhancing capability and readiness. We aim to eliminate all preventable work-related injuries and illness through the systematic management of our risks. We will strive to make measurable improvement in our occupational health and safety performance through the implementation of the Defence OHS Strategy."

The Current Strategy

The Defence OHS Strategy 2007-2012 (998KB) defines the strategic objectives that are required to achieve our desired OHS culture and deliver a high standard of OHS performance. It articulates our OHS policy and expected outcomes.

The Defence OHS Management System provides a planned, documented and quantifiable approach for the comprehensive and systematic management of OHS. Our OHS Management System encompasses the areas of leadership, incident prevention, incident management, and supporting management arrangements. It provides the architecture to embed a repeatable way of managing OHS that includes the integration of deliberate practices, processes and linkages, while remaining sufficiently flexible and responsive to meet changing demands.

It is our aim to move beyond simply focusing on legislative compliance and evolve into a values-based, learning organisation. Thus, proactively managing all workplace hazards to protect our people across the spectrum of activities we are engaged in including deployments, operations and working at Defence facilities. Our Defence values guide the behaviour of our people, at every level of the organisation, and will underpin our desired OHS culture.

Implementation of the Defence OHS Strategy will take place at two levels: the corporate level and the individual Service and Group level. At the corporate level, the objective will continue to be the achievement of Strategic Objectives that require a coordinated approach across the Services and Groups. At Service and Group level, the objective will be on implementing arrangements to meet the individual organisations' needs while supporting corporate OHS improvement initiatives.

Annual Report

2010/11 Defence OHS Strategy Annual Report (548KB)

2009/10 Defence OHS Strategy Annual Report (74KB)

2008/09 Defence OHS Strategy Annual Report (307KB)

2007/08 Defence OHS Strategy Annual Report (786KB)

Defence OHS Strategic Objectives

The first, or 'Reposition' edition of the Defence OHS Strategic Plan 2004-2006 established priority areas for action, broadly grouped into outcome priorities and enabling priorities. We have made progress during the 'Reposition' phase of the 'Strategic Plan', agreeing the Defence OHSMS as the enterprise-level architecture for managing OHS and defining roles and responsibilities. As we transition to the 'Reshaping' phase, a review of the priorities contained in the Defence OHS Strategic Plan 2004-2006 reveals that the initial thinking was sound.

Foundation

Defence has a positive culture of work health and safety
The Defence wide OHSMS is implemented

Operational

Defence maximises the prevention of occupational injury, illness and disease
Defence minimises the frequency and severity of risks to peoples health and safety
Defence minimises the impact of occupational injury illness and disease

Enabling

Decision makers at all levels have access to quality OHS information
Personnel are appropriately trained and skilled to identify and manage hazards
Hazards are identified, eliminated or managed at the design and planning stages
Defence manages the OHS performance of third parties

Our obligations

In fulfilling our responsibilities to the Government, it is paramount that we protect the health and safety of Defence personnel which is underpinned by our Defence values. By maintaining high standards of occupational health and safety we preserve Defence capability, directly contributing to our capacity to defend Australia and its national interests.

Our duty of care under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1991 and other related legislation encompasses all Defence personnel, Australian Defence Force Cadets, contractors and those who may be affected by our activities. Defence will promote a culture where OHS is an inherent consideration of all of those who work in Defence. In such an environment, personnel will actively identify and assess workplace hazards, and implement and review strategies that eliminate or minimise risks to people. Importantly, we will learn from our experiences, and the experience of others, both in Australia and overseas.

Defence has an ethical and legal obligation to look after our people. The quality of our OHS performance is critical to attracting, recruiting and retaining skilled personnel, and maintaining our reputation with the Government and the Australian people. Commanders and managers at all levels are to ensure that the health and safety of their people are uppermost in their minds, be they on operations, conducting training or on Defence facilities.

Our system for managing OHS must be comprehensive and readily understood by all personnel throughout Defence. Importantly, it must protect our people and support Defence's efforts to build and maintain capability. Safe practice must be fundamental and inherent in our systems, our operating procedures, and most importantly in the way we think.

The Development Journey

In 2004, in response to the F-111 Deseal/Reseal Board of Inquiry, work commenced on developing a holistic, systematic and coordinated Defence wide response to the OHS management issues identified through the BOI. This work resulted in the promulgation of the Defence OHS Strategic Plan 2004-2006. This Plan envisaged the work required to improve OHS performance would be undertaken in three discrete phases - 'Reposition, Reshape and Realise'.

The review of the Defence OHS Strategic Plan 2004-2006 commenced in July 2006 with a workshop for the DOHSC and invited group representatives. At this workshop it was agreed that the original Plan was fundamentally sound and had provided a good initial attempt at describing Defence's priority OHS concerns. This stakeholder workshop analysed the benefits and disadvantages of the approach and content of the first Plan. Several things became apparent from this analysis, including:

• priorities in the first Plan required increased precision to quantify outcomes;
• priorities, while expressed as such, were not arranged in any rank order;
• the Plan not only identified OHS deficiencies but attempted to articulate remedies; and
• by design it had limited itself to the 'Reposition' phase of the improvement path.

Development of the new Strategy acknowledged these limitations and addressed them through a revised approach and structure. Consultation across the Services and Groups revealed that instead of an unranked list of priorities what was required was an articulation of strategic OHS objectives that supported improved OHS performance and sustainable long term cultural change. Importantly these objectives should be placed in a priority ranking that recognises their interdependencies, and/or their significance in terms of capability impacts.

   Contact Web Administrator