Risk Management

In the wake of major enforcement pushes across New South Wales, local governments are facing intense scrutiny over workplace mental health. High-profile regulatory actions by SafeWork NSW, such as the recent compliance notices issued to Shoalhaven City Council and pioneering frameworks from Glen Innes Severn Council, have left many asking: What exactly are a councillor’s legal duties regarding psychosocial safety?

Most people understand that a business has work health and safety duties. Fewer people realise that certain individuals inside that business hold a separate duty, in their own name, that cannot be handed to anybody else. Those individuals are called officers. On 13 August 2026, SafeWork NSW released an online self-assessment tool and a quick reference guide to help officers understand and test their due diligence. It is a genuinely useful resource and I would encourage or

Effective psychosocial risk management does not require organisations to reinvent the wheel. In most cases, the foundations already exist within your current risk management, health and safety, human resources, leadership and performance management systems.

Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) are not only a legal requirement, but they are also crucial for ensuring safety in various work environments, particularly in high-risk industries. However, there are significant barriers that can affect their effectiveness, especially for workers with low literacy, reading difficulties or big egos.

Poor safety advice does not just create inefficiency, it can directly contribute to incidents. Across multiple high-profile events, investigations have shown that risks were often known, but not effectively managed. Controls were either not in place, not working, or not verified. This is where ineffective safety capability becomes a real business risk. When safety professionals focus on paperwork instead of critical controls, or fail to escalate serious risks

Many supervisors are promoted because they are technically strong, yet receive little formal leadership development. This article explores why traditional leadership programs often fail operational leaders and what organisations can do differently.

Reports this week indicate that employers in New South Wales may soon face significant fines for failing to manage workplace bullying and other psychosocial hazards.

VOC is not about training someone how to do a task. It is about confirming that a person can safely and effectively perform a specific task, using specific tools or equipment, in your workplace, under your conditions.

Safe Work Australia has published amendments to the Model WHS Laws, introducing new incident notification duties, crane licensing changes and updates to PPE and compliance requirements. These amendments set the national benchmark, but adoption will vary by state and territory, so businesses must check their local regulator.

Poor consultation can extend to the overall culture of the business, where workers don’t trust management, changes fail to be implemented correctly and people become disengaged from the risk management process, viewing it as something that’s done to them rather than done with them. Over time, this erodes accountability, weakens communication and creates the perfect conditions for serious incidents to occur.

When most businesses talk about risk, the focus almost always falls on prevention. “We’ve got it under control,” leaders say, pointing to their policies, procedures, or engineered barriers. But what happens when those preventive controls fail? That’s where mitigating controls step in. They are the reactive measures – the systems, processes, and resources you rely on when the unwanted event has already occurred. Unfortunately, they are often overlooked, underfunded, or complet

At SRA Global, we’ve built Australia’s only leadership development pathway focused entirely on risk. Our 2-day Risk Leader and 3-day Risk Advisor programs are designed to equip you with modern tools, strategic insight, and practical skills that go beyond legislation.

In June 2025, Optus agreed to pay a record‑breaking A$100 million, almost its entire profit in the last year, following a case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for unconscionable sales and coercive debt collection targeting vulnerable customers. Optus accepted that its staff had been overly agressive and pushed unneeed products on vulnerable and disadvantaged customers.

When we think about workplace health and safety, our minds often go straight to employees, contractors, or maybe even volunteers. But what about visitors? People who pop in briefly, attend a meeting, drop off a parcel, or tour your facility? Under Australian WHS laws, visitors have a right to be safe – and businesses have a legal duty to protect them.

The Victorian Department of Education has taken a meaningful step in acknowledging the rise in work-related violence from student behaviour—with a staggering 46.7% increase reported over the last decade. Following an audit, the Department has adopted four key recommendations aimed at better managing this risk in the workplace.The Victorian Department of Education has taken a meaningful step in acknowledging the rise in work-related violence from student behaviour,with a stagg

When people hear the term Critical Control Verification, they often assume it’s reserved for high-risk industries like mining or oil and gas. But here’s the truth: every business has critical controls and verifying them doesn’t have to be technical or time-consuming.

In psychology, crisis triggers growth. It creates urgency, activates problem-solving, and mobilises resources. On the other hand, comfort breeds complacency. It convinces us that things are fine, even when critical risks are quietly stacking up behind the scenes. In a workplace setting, this psychological trap has serious implications for health, safety, and risk.

Facilitating a risk workshop sounds straightforward. Get everyone in a room and talk about risk, right? But if you’ve ever run one that dragged on with no clear outcomes, or worse, one where people felt unheard or confused, you’ll know it’s not that simple. An effective risk workshop has a structure, a purpose, and most importantly, a skilled facilitator who can extract the right information from the right people.

In safety, we often focus on physical hazards, equipment, procedures, permits, and compliance. But what about the invisible injuries that walk onto site each day? Trauma-informed counselling is a framework that recognises the widespread impact of trauma and understands how it can affect behaviour, decision-making, relationships, and risk perception. For safety professionals, understanding this approach isn't just relevant, it’s critical.

Supervision is often overlooked as a control, but make no mistake, if done properly it’s one of the most effective risk controls available to organisations across all industries. While it might not be a piece of equipment or a formal system, supervision is a dynamic, real-time control. One that can intervene, course-correct and support risk-based decision making at the exact moment it matters most.