Project number: 2017-231
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $350,000.00
Principal Investigator: Tanya L. Adams
Organisation: Taylored Health and Safety Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 14 Jun 2018 - 30 May 2021
Contact:
FRDC

Need

There have been significant resources (financial and physical) allocated to workplace health and safety (including mental health, training and systems for data collection) over the last 15 years in the commercial fishing industry .However the majority have been “stand alone" and there has been limited extension for the wider industry to adopt. Although there have been some positive moves in the area of health and safety such as the SRL Clean Green program and the Spencer Gulf Prawn fishery, there has largely been a “silo” approach to the various initiatives across the commercial fishing industry and a real lack of coordination that can lead to a lack of communication, adoption and the lack of visibility of tools to those that need it. This is due in part to the nature of the industry that tends (overall) not to have the willingness to adopt something that another fishery has implemented, fragmentation of industry in some states and within a fishery. Additionally, the absence of a peak national body until June 2017 also created a gap for driving nationwide issues including workplace safety and health initiatives. Through the building of these networks and the establishment of on the ground champion in each state to influence industry including the building of capacity/ resources within the peak bodies to embrace workplace health and safety on behalf of their members, improved awareness and adoption of safety programs should occur. To do this State peak bodies require support to enable them to add value for their members and therefore utilise existing and currently funded research and develop extension processes.It is unknown to what level industry uptake of the current AMSA requirements for a safety management system (SMS) has occurred. It is not well understood by industry that the existence of a SMS to meet AMSA requirements only goes half way for legal compliance. Each states Worksafe body also has legislation that requires compliance with safe work practices. It is desirable to produce a SMS that meets both sets of legislation and develop a tool that can be used to assess the uptake of the initiatives through the peak bodies as well as developing a robust set of statistics to benchmark the performance.

Objectives

1. To build capability in each jurisdiction industry council for the development of a safety management system toolkit based on gear type/fishery type for implementation across industry
2. To develop processes to ensure existing and future projects including LMS ( 2017-194) and Barriers to Adoption ( 2017-046) are integrated into objective 1 above
4. To develop a national “champions” network for workplace/ marine safety to assist jurisdictional bodies communicate and champion the safety message
5. To ensure current and previous marine safety RD&E projects are linked and collaborate effectively to achieve increased levels of extension
6. To develop a tool and estimate wild catch fisheries accident statistics ( historical) and to provide a system and a benchmark to measure future performance of accident statistics

Related research

Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-082
PROJECT STATUS:
CURRENT

Australian Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistics 2022

1. To maintain and improve the data base of production, gross value of production and trade statistics for the Australian fishing industry, including aquaculture.
ORGANISATION:
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) ABARES
Adoption
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