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 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.

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.

When reviewing a risk register or investigating an incident, it’s common to find a long list of risk controls associated with a single hazard. But a long list of controls does not mean the hazard is being effectively managed. In fact, many of those listed controls may do very little to prevent harm.

A Bowtie Risk Analysis is a simple but powerful tool that helps us visually map out the causal pathways that lead to an unwanted event and the escalation paths that can make things worse. And unlike traditional methods, the bowtie focuses on what matters most – the causes.

We’re living in a time where every dollar matters. Rising interest rates, rent spikes, electricity increases, groceries that have doubled in price — it’s a cost-of-living crisis, and it’s hitting households hard.

This article cuts through the noise. It’s a plain-English guide to risk management terminology – the terms that matter in the context of enterprise, operational, health and safety, security, environmental, and fatal risks.

In this article, we’ll break down the most common types of risk assessments; Traditional Risk Assessment, WRAC, JSEA, SWMW, Bowtie, HAZOP, HAZID, and personal risk assessments like SLAM and Take 5—so you can understand when to use each, and why.

We know that incidents occur when controls fail. That’s the relationship we work with in every investigation. So, if a critical control failure is picked up in a CCV — even if there’s no injury, no damage, and no catastrophic event — shouldn't we treat that just as seriously?

Psychosocial hazards are complex, varied and deeply personal. They don’t operate like physical hazards. You can’t engineer your way out of a toxic workplace culture with a checklist and a wellness webinar.

We often think of infrastructure as something permanent – bridges, buildings, pipelines, processing plants – all solid, all safe… right? But the reality is, much of the infrastructure we rely on every day is ageing. Some of it was built 30, 40, even 60 years ago! While it might still be standing, what lies beneath the surface could be hiding serious risks to your business, your people, and your community.

A Critical Control Performance Standard defines what “good” looks like for your most important controls. It outlines how the control should be implemented, who’s responsible, what training is needed, how to verify it, and what to do if it fails. Without it, even the best controls can quietly fall apart.

Risk tolerance is your organisation’s true boundaries Put simply, risk tolerance is how much risk your organisation is prepared to accept in pursuit of its goals. It’s your comfort zone. But here’s the problem: most organisations have never actually defined it. They talk about being ‘risk averse’ or ‘willing to take calculated risks’ – but when you look closely, you’ll find: No clear documentation, no consistency across teams, no link between risk tolerance and control per

Mitigating controls are the unsung heroes in our risk management toolkit. They don’t stop an incident from occurring – instead, they reduce

For decades, frontline workers have relied on Take 5s, SLAMs, and similar tools to assess risk before starting a task.

Developing effective risk management processes is essential for businesses of all sizes. Whether you're starting from scratch or reviewing

One significant flaw that often goes unnoticed is how risk matrices inherently "accept" high-consequence, low-likelihood risks.