Risk! Engineers Talk Governance

Drop us a note In this season finale of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis reflect on Season 7's central theme of SFAIRP and the growing divide between moral imperative of work health and safety legislation and the commercial pressures organisations face in practice. After their recap of topics covered, the conversation focuses on AI&apo...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss the mathematics behind risk modelling and why relying on heat maps for decision-making can have limitations. Richard and Gaye explore the concept of the "ideal" hazard risk curve, unpacking why every hazard carries its own unique risk profile rather than a...

Drop us a note In the second of two episodes of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance on How Information Sharing has Changed, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss how the Public Sphere has evolved and what it ultimately means for SFAIRP. Richard starts the chat outlining the work of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, tracing the journey of public discourse from coffee house...

Drop us a note In this first of two episodes of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis explore how the SFAIRP principle (So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable) applies to managing internet risk. Richard explains R2A's journey with data security, from backing up to CDs and running an in-house server, to shifting to cloud hosting during Melbourn...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis explore organisational Cunning versus Smart and why it matters deeply for health, safety, and governance. Richard draws on decades of observing large organisations and argues that the people who rise to the top aren't always the most competent, they're often the mo...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis explore the use of ignorance in health and safety decisions and how it’s being used to not make decisions and not deliver the best safety outcomes for organisations. Richard and Gaye examine the growing trend of shorter board tenures and how this lack of long-term intellectu...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Delaying Decisions to avoid SFAIRP (So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable). Their conversation covers: if lack of a decision is the result of ignorance and poor governance rather than deliberate strategy how the elimination option often gets tested far too late in the...

Drop us a note In this episode, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss New Zealand's Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill and explore why New Zealand is leading the in workplace health and safety. They break down the key changes in the amendment, including a sharper focus on critical risk and what this means for both large organisations and small PCBUs.  The con...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Resilient Infrastructure, Risk & Adaptation Strategies. Following their attendance at the recent forum hosted by Engineers Australia's Risk Engineering Society and the Institute of Strategic Risk Management they unpack the big questions it raised about resil...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance , due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis how AI in Risk Management? Richard begins with a deep-dive into how large language models work, and where they fall short. He explains why AI systems are sophisticated inference engines rather than true reasoning machines, and why that distinction matters enormously for hig...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss this season’s theme of SFAIRP: Moral Imperative versus Commercial Reality and that SFAIRP is hard.  They discuss the tension between the legal and moral weight of “so far as is reasonably practicable” and the commercial pressures organisations face every day, includi...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis wrap up Season 6 and the theme of SFAIRP complexities. Key season highlights they revisit: Three essential components of SFAIRP: "As Far", "As Is", and “Reasonably Practicable”, Confusion around hierarchy of controls,  Contradictions between WHS Legislati...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss the two types of Regulators. They outline two fundamentally different regulatory philosophies: regulators who view prosecutions as a measure of success versus those who see them as a measure of failure. The discussion examines how the "so far as is reasonably pr...

Drop us a note In this special episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss psychosocial hazards in the workplace and the newly introduced Victorian Occupational Health and Safety (Psychosocial Health) Regulations 2025, which came into effect on 1 December. They explain that the new regulations largely re-states existing Occupational...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis break down the concept of SFAIRP "So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable" into three key parts: "So Far", "As Is", and "Reasonably Practicable". This was one of their key take-aways from their recent Live Forum where lawyer Joseph Coleiro...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Formal Safety Assessments.  Key highlights include: A Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) is meant to provide a logical and reasoned argument that can withstand legal scrutiny. Formal Safety Assessments should identify the critical issues of concern, the current controls...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis revisit the topic of Safety Culture. They review the work of Professor Patrick Hudson, who identified five levels of safety culture, from pathological (who cares as long as we're not caught) to generative (safety is how we do business around here). Richard and Gaye obse...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Could vs Should in Workplace Safety. (Thanks Nick for your email, case reference and questions.) They explore the critical distinction between what "could" have been done versus what "should" have been done in workplace safety, sparked by the SKM...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss the complications of Safety Legislation & Planning Law.   Drawing on their extensive experience across multiple Australian jurisdictions—including Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and federal government projects—Richard and Gaye discuss the challenges engin...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Safe Work Australia's review of the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act & Regulations, and R2A’s submission response.   Key points include: Contradictions between the WHS legislation, regulations, and common law requirements, particularly for designers an...

Drop us a note In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis answer a listener’s question on the Pressures of Rail Safety National Law and the SFAIRP Approach. They explain how WHS/OHS legislation takes precedence over the Rail Safety National Law, clarify the "no double jeopardy" principle, and discuss how Australia's...

Drop us a note In this first episode of Season 6 of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss the pressures and complexities different stakeholders are having with SFAIRP They follow on from the theme of Season 5, “Difficult Conversations Engineers Need to Have”, how it generated discussions and comments, and determined holding an in person...

Drop us a note In this special episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis preview their upcoming live forum event on "Preventing Criminal Manslaughter - Understanding & Implementing SFAIRP (So Far As Reasonably Practicable)".  The event will feature presentations from a lawyer, Joseph Coleiro, and an architect, Dr. Frank Stok...

Drop us a note In this final episode of Season 5, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis conclude their theme of difficult conversations engineers need to have as well as discuss Engineering for Communities.  They explore how engineering should focus on improving rather than maintaining the status quo, and the concerning trend of engineers being sidelined in critical decision-ma...

Drop us a note In this episode of "Risk! Engineers Talk Governance," due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis revisit the fundamentals of engineering due diligence in response to listener feedback about confusion between risk, assurance and diligence. The discussion covers how R2A became specialised in due diligence engineering through their expert witness work, where th...