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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.

In December 2025, this unit was officially superseded and replaced with HLTPAT010 – Collect Specimens for Drugs of Abuse Testing. For organisations running workplace testing programs, and for individuals responsible for specimen collection, it is important to understand what changed and what the transition means.

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.

In the same way a business prepares for physical emergencies with fire evacuation drills or first aid kits, it must also prepare for psychological emergencies. A Trauma Response Plan (TRP) is the psychosocial equivalent of an incident response plan – and increasingly, it’s becoming a legislative and moral necessity.

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

Work health and safety (WHS) has evolved. What once passed as best practice is no longer effective in today’s increasingly complex work environments. What does a modern safety leader actually look like? It’s not someone who hides behind procedure manuals or only shows up when there’s an incident. A modern-day safety leader is proactive, strategic, and credible. They lead with influence, not authority. They connect with people, not just paperwork.

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.