OHS Leaders Summit

Presentations and discussions were focussed on safety thought leadership, insight and innovation at the 2013 OHS Leaders Summit which was held in February.

Wayne Harris, Chairman of ISQEM and Board Director of World Safety Organisation, was the master of ceremonies at the three-day event attended by 120 occupational health and safety leaders at the Sheraton Noosa Resort & Spa, Queensland. Presentations and discussion groups covered many of the major issues facing the industry today and into the future.

Jason Allison, of insurers GIO and Prof Philip Taylor of Monash University talked about how Australia’s workers compensation system looks set to take on a significant percentage of our ageing population’s health-care costs because we’ll be working longer. As the workforce increases by a further 25% over the next four decades only about 5% will come from workers aged less than 54 years old, while more than 200% growth is expected for workers aged 65 years and over.

The summit also heard how a new early-intervention strategy to reduce workplace bullying, grievances and stress claims at the Department of Sustainability and Environment has resulted in a significant drop in the number of complaints, a 50% decrease in WorkCover stress claims and a reduction in WorkCover premium.

Other presentations covered medical care in remote locations, the use of storytelling in safety education and how business can maintain a zero-harm mindset, to name a few. Representatives from many of Australia’s largest companies including the Commonwealth Bank, David Jones, Fonterra, Queensland Rail, Woolworths and Westpac sat on the discussion panels.

“I found the summit really informative and very useful for the thought leadership of people who lead safety in very large organisations,“ commented Malcolm Deery, Group General Manager of the Programmed Group. He described it as a chance to ‘calibrate’ and ask yourself: “Are we working on the right things, the same things, the productive things?"

Rio Tinto’s Health & Safety Manager for the global corporate function division Patrick Murphy valued the range of suppliers present. “It was definitely an effective way of understanding what some of the suppliers have to offer us but … perhaps most importantly, understanding some of the emerging suppliers coming into the market with innovative services and goods to offer.”

Sponsors and suppliers were given the opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with a number of senior occupational health and safety leaders over three days, allowing them to get in front of some of the most influential OHS directors across a range of industries.

Commonwealth Bank’s Executive Manager OH&S Ben Sheidow said: “The one-to-one business meetings work really well. It’s an opportunity for us to sit down with suppliers who also provide goods and services that we need to invest in and have a look at how we could tailor those solutions within our business.”

Tyron McGurgan, CEO of Media Corp International and Director of the OHS Leaders Summit announced that: “given the success of 2013’s event and the high demand we have received, we have already opened up positions for suppliers to attend next year’s event.”