SafetyAtWorkBlog

This episode examines Victoria’s new Royal Commission into the integrity of major construction projects, arguing that occupational health and safety must be treated as more than a compliance phrase or political shield. I explore how safety can be used, ignored or manipulated across procurement, government contracts, builders and unions, and ask whether the inquiry will confront the shared responsi...

This commentary offers a critical look at BHP’s latest Annual Report, exploring how the company presents safety, how it buries sexual harassment data in its Sustainability chapter, and why psychosocial hazards deserve to sit alongside traditional injury metrics. It reflects on the cultural challenges of retrofitting modern OHS expectations into a 141 year old organisation, questions the effectiven...

This episode examines concussion, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), duty of care and occupational health and safety in Australian sport, drawing on many SafetyAtWorkBlog articles about the AFL, Nick Lowden, player welfare, junior football, contact training, compensation and the limits of “awareness” as a safety response. It asks whether professional sport should be treated more clearly as wo...

This episode looks at the HR spin on burnout and exposes what’s really going on: unsafe work design and breached OHS duties. Using a recent media story about a government IT contract demanding 24/7 availability, I ask why psychosocial hazards aren’t “invisible threats”; they’re predictable outcomes of poor procurement, bad management, and ignored legal obligations. Burnout isn’t complex through an...

This episode explores how Farm Safety Week continues to repeat familiar themes while WorkSafe Victoria quietly shifts its messaging toward the real issue: farmers becoming desensitised to risk. Drawing on Sam Jenkin’s recent Country Hour interview and WorkSafe’s powerful new farm safety advertisement, the monologue examines the fine line regulators must walk between honesty and diplomacy, the dang...

This episode examines why some Australian business leaders continue to resist working from home despite evidence showing no productivity loss and clear mental‑health benefits. With Victoria preparing to legislate a limited WFH right, the debate has become more ideological than evidence‑based, shaped by political positioning, managerial mistrust, and even leadership psychology. Drawing on recent re...

Kevin Jones reflects on the death of Brodie Panlock, the workplace bullying case that helped reshape Australian thinking about psychosocial hazards, prevention, and OHS responsibility. This episode considers what workplaces should have learned from the tragedy, beyond just law reform and public outrage. It contains discussion of work-related suicide. For the full article with quotes and references...

KPMG is the latest major firm exposed for unethical conduct — misusing confidential client data, misleading investigators, and failing to protect whistleblowers. It follows a decade of corporate scandals across banking, finance, consulting and law, all involving cultural failures that intersect with OHS obligations. This episode examines why these repeated leadership failures matter for psychologi...

A 23‑year‑old footballer, Nick Lowden, died with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the youngest known case linked to Australian rules football. His story exposes a risk the AFL can no longer treat as “rough and tumble” or part of the game. Concussion protocols were ignored, symptoms escalated, and the cumulative impacts of routine head knocks were never explained to him or his family. This e...

In this episode, Kevin Jones reflects on key insights from the 2026 International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment conference in Canberra. He explores why policies, training, and awareness campaigns often fall short in managing psychosocial risks at work, and argues that lasting change requires stronger systems, clearer definitions, and deeper organisational reform. For the full ar...

A clear-eyed look at why Australia’s productivity debate is really a debate about work design. This episode unpacks the mismatch between old industrial‑era metrics and today’s knowledge‑and‑care economy, showing how performance, psychosocial risk, and productivity are all symptoms of the same system. A call for OHS to step into the national conversation with the maturity it has long developed. For...

A sharp look at the latest corporate scandal and what it reveals about the widening gap between leadership rhetoric and workplace reality. This episode argues that repeated ethical failures across major firms aren’t just governance issues — they’re psychosocial hazards — and makes the case for stronger regulatory intervention when organisations refuse to change themselves. For the full article wit...

A persistent OHS problem is presented by quad bikes. This episode challenges the long-standing reliance on education and voluntary measures in preventing workplace fatalities. I argue for stronger regulation, including mandatory engineering controls, clearer accountability, and a renewed focus on the hierarchy of controls—making the case that when harm persists in predictable ways, real safety imp...

A persistent OHS problem is presented by quad bikes. This episode challenges the long-standing reliance on education and voluntary measures in preventing workplace fatalities. I argue for stronger regulation, including mandatory engineering controls, clearer accountability, and a renewed focus on the hierarchy of controls—making the case that when harm persists in predictable ways, real safety imp...

This episode examines how decades of institutional denial shape today’s failures in managing psychosocial hazards. Drawing on lived experience and historical context, it traces how schools and workplaces normalised silence, minimised harm, and protected reputations rather than people, and how those attitudes still echo in modern organisational culture. It’s a reminder that psychosocial risk isn’t...

This episode explores how historian Mike Duncan’s “Great Idiot Theory of History” can offer a different way of thinking about workplace health and safety failures, arguing that serious incidents are rarely inevitable and more often the result of avoidable leadership decisions protected by elite consensus. Drawing connections among history, corporate power, and psychological harm at work, this epis...

This episode reflects on the return of “Big Data” through modern AI tools and what that means for professional judgement, using recent developments in the legal sector as a case study. It explores where artificial intelligence genuinely adds value, where it risks narrowing perspective, and why preventing workplace harm—particularly in occupational health and safety—still depends on human interpret...

On April 28, 2026 — a day marked globally as International Workers’ Memorial Day or the World Day for Safety and Health at Work — the official theme was psychosocial harm, yet Australian political responses largely avoided discussing it. This episode looks at what governments chose to say, what they left unsaid, and why that silence matters, particularly given recent legal recognition of psychosoc...

This five‑minute SafetyAtWorkBlog article summary discusses how executive health risks are symptoms of unsafe work design, not personal weakness. Drawing on recent media coverage, it argues that long hours, addictive workloads, and poor job control are organisational hazards disguised as ambition. With sharp commentary and evidence‑based insight, it challenges employers to stop treating burnout as...

In this audio version of a SafetyAtWorkBlog article (published 14 April 2026), OHS advisor and writer Kevin Jones argues that psychological harm at work isn’t a personal weakness—it’s a foreseeable workplace hazard that employers are required to control. He explores why many organisations still default to blaming individuals, why “consultation” often becomes empty theatre (especially when the sour...

In this episode, I compare two new books reviewed on the SafetyAtWorkBlog to explore where psychological harm at work really comes from. Setting Kat Page’s evidence‑based focus on job design and prevention against Graeme Cowan’s leadership‑led emphasis on empathy and care, the discussion asks whether harm sits with individuals, leaders, or the systems of work themselves. Drawing on occupational he...

I argue that Australia should stop treating occupational health and safety (OHS) as a compliance cost and start seeing it as a powerful economic lever that protects productivity, skills and human capital. By reshaping procurement rules, tax settings and incentives, Treasury could reframe safety as essential economic infrastructure and one of the nation’s smartest investments.

This episode summarises a SafetyAtWorkBlog article exploring a quiet but significant shift in occupational health and safety thinking — away from blaming individual workers and towards examining the systems that shape how work is designed and managed. Drawing on ideas from a recent US book about wealth, power and responsibility, the script contrasts “individual framing” with “systemic framing,” ar...

In this episode, I reflect on a SafetyAtWorkBlog article examining how overlooked disciplines—particularly accounting and governance—shape work health and safety, arguing that concepts like legitimacy theory and corporate purpose help explain why workplace harm is tolerated and normalised. The script challenges compliance focused OHS practice, links social licence and legitimacy to chronic and psy...

Today I explore how personal morality shapes leadership and workplace safety, inspired by recent comments from Donald Trump. I look at why safety is built on shared responsibility—not individual preference—and how leaders’ attitudes toward laws can affect everyone at work. Articles referenced - Red Flags for OHS Misunderstandings - https://safetyatworkblog.com/2025/01/02/red-flags-for-ohs-misunder...