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ALMOST 90 OHS personnel from units around Australia attended Army’s annual Safety Conference at Puckapunyal on March 22-23.
This year’s theme was Closing the Loop, which reflects the importance of ensuring the safety process – “spot the hazard, access the risk, fix the problem and evaluate the result” – is followed right through.
The Director of Army’s Occupational Health and Safety Directorate, Col Stephan Rudzki, opened proceedings and the main focus of his presentation was the impact of Comcare’s current scrutiny of Army and Army’s ability to proactively manage safety issues.
Lisa Maxwell, of Comcare, spoke about recent changes to the OHS legislation. Initial analysis would indicate that few changes affect Army personnel.
Col James Phasey, Director of Technical Regulation-Army, spoke about the push to ensure delivery of fully functional equipment.
Chief Warrant Officer Larry Bugg, Senior Air Disaster Investigator from the US Combat Readiness Centre, outlined US safety strategies, which include the use of sports personalities to appeal directly to Service personnel to embrace OHS.
As well, a composite risk management approach has been developed to cement OHS processes throughout the US Army.
This strategy includes key considerations in the planning stage and post activity reports for every activity.
Col Peter Sibree provided an update on the activities of the ArmySAFE Advisory Service and discussed a new auditing system for the Australian Army Cadets.
Safety Managers for Land and Training Commands provided an overview of their concerns and current issues. Brig Geoffrey Barnett, who headed the ArmySAFE Development and Implementation Teams, gave some historical insights into how ArmySAFE had evolved and his views on future directions. |
