PSPG | Work Health and Safety

The Australian Government Department of Defence

Defence Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2017

Defence WHS Vision

Through leadership and individual commitment, Defence aims to ensure no person will suffer a serious preventable work related injury or illness. The protection of our people is paramount. At times we require our people to operate in environments of extreme risk and hazard due to the nature of military operations. However, at all times we will manage risk to ensure that when risks are taken they are understood, accounted for, and integrated into our plans and the way we operate.

The responsibility for work health and safety, both physical and mental, belongs to everyone. We will strive to make measurable improvement in our work health and safety performance through the implementation of the Defence Work Health and Safety Strategy.

Defence WHS Policy Statement

Safety is a fundamental input to Defence capability and an integral part of the way we conduct our operations within Defence.

Defence’s safety vision is to ensure no person will suffer a serious preventable work related injury or illness. The protection of our people is paramount. This includes those working in Australia, deployed in an operational environment or carrying out training exercises.

Our Work Health and Safety Strategy will provide the direction for Defence to achieve this Vision and its supporting implementation plan articulates the activities, we as an organisation, will undertake.

The Defence Work Health and Safety Management System (WHSMS) is designed to give all our workers the highest level of protection that is reasonably practicable against harm to their health, safety and welfare from hazards and risks arising at work. Safe practice must be fundamental and inherent to the way we think and act.

Defence Leaders must empower their people to undertake roles and responsibilities under the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act to achieve Defence’s mission in the safest possible way.
Defence is an organisation run on Values based behaviour. This means ensuring that individuals at all levels in Defence are prepared to accept responsibility and accountability for their actions, and to think clearly about the consequences of those actions for Defence and the broader community.

The responsibility for identifying hazards, assessing risks and taking action to ensure a safe and healthy work environment belongs to everyone. As a consequence, the safety considerations we give to the person working next to us must be the same safety considerations we give to every worker, contractor, volunteer or visitor to a Defence site who may be impacted by the results of our work.

By empowering our people to identify and resolve safety issues, we will ensure that the protection of the Nation will begin with the protection of our people.

Strategic Objectives

Defence’s Work Health and Safety Vision can be achieved in three steps:

PLAN – Consider the implications of all business activities, processes, platforms and products. Take into account the end user and maintainers of your product, be they physical plant or processes.
PREVENT – Take action to prevent hazards from occurring in the workplace including reviewing and assessing current practices to achieve the most efficient and safe outcome.
PROVIDE – Provide guidance to all people effected by your activities, support for those who may be injured and ensure that lessons learnt are fed back into the planning phase.

These three simple steps can be carried out at all levels of the organisation. Each step has two core objectives to focus resources on achieving our safety vision.

PLAN:
- Objective 1- Upstream Safety
  Defence ensures hazards are identified, eliminated or managed at the design, planning and procurement stages and provide a methodology for the safe handover and takeover of any service or product provided within the Defence framework through to disposal.
- Objective 2 - Safety Culture
  Defence drives a positive culture of work health and safety encompassing committed leaders, managers and dedicated safety professionals supported by a total workforce appropriately trained, skilled and motivated to identify and manage hazards and manage risks.
PREVENT
- Objective 3 - Safety System Monitoring and Improvement
  Defence minimises the frequency and severity of risks to all workers as defined in the WHS Act through the implementation and systematic review of a Defence wide WHSMS,
- Objective 4: Preventative Measures
  Defence maximises the prevention of injury, illness and disease by identifying threats to the workforce by process, procedure or materiel.
PROVIDE
- Objective 5: Guidance and Support
  Defence minimises the impact of injury illness and disease by developing and implementing work safety policy and guidelines, and implementing, maintaining and managing programs for injured workers.
- Objective 6: Information, Communication and Consultation
  Decision makers at all levels have access to quality WHS information to empower them to eliminate or manage hazards across the Defence lifecycle and upon disposal.
  
  Communication, consultation and collaboration cannot be achieved effectively by a single strategic objective or project carried out within that objective. Like leadership it must become part of the way we do our daily business. Understanding the need to effectively communicate information and the ways in which information is understood across all potential stakeholders is imperative to the continued improvement of safety within Defence.

Defence Work Health and Strategy 2012 - 2017 (Adobe PDF File, 3MB)

Annual Reports

Defence Work Health and Safety Branch is committed to providing websites that are accessible to the widest possible audience.

Whilst we strive to adhere to accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it may not always be possible.

If an alternate content or document format will assist with your needs, please .

Contact Web Administrator