I recently had one of those startling wake-up calls that acutely settle us down for a short period of time.
My previous employer phoned to let me know the neighbour and community stalwart had sadly passed away. Being a small town we had often enjoyed a beer around the barbeque and swapped stories of our days on the farm.
He was an older gentleman who had leased out his farm as part of the family's succession plan, so I initially assumed he had passed away quietly. My shock escalated when it emerged that we had lost our friend in a farming accident.
We have all had little scares or near-misses in our work life to remind us to slow down, whether it's pinching our fingers in a belt, cutting concrete when we put the angle grinder down too quickly, or the car rolling away as we get the gate. All in the name of time-saving shortcuts. These incidents slow us down for the short term, but we easily forget as we move on to the next job and become busy once again.
I have worked in both corporate and family farming operations and found both succumb to the same underlying risks - compliance, compensation and complacency.
The dangers of confusing compliance with real safety are prevalent in all work places, but none more so than farming.
Both operators and owners need to understand that being "in compliance" is not the same as being "out of danger."
Every day, workers fall through the cracks of a one-size-fits-all safety policy, a result of lengthy induction manuals and safe operating procedures being skimmed over to tick a box.
According to the theory of risk compensation, people subconsciously maintain their own level of "risk equilibrium" by adjusting their behaviour to reflect the changes in their surrounding environment. Thus, when the environment around us feels unsafe, we take fewer chances. And when that same environment feels safer, we become complacent.
During my research for this article it was encouraging to learn that there has been a significant reduction of on-farm injury related deaths over the last 20 years, with Farmsafe Australia reporting around 63 people died from non-intentional injury on Australian farms in 2016, falling from an average of 146 deaths a year in 1989.
The reality of these figures still struck me as far too many. The impact on these families, communities and the broader industry far exceeds the 63 victims.
Unsurprisingly, the answer to these three Cs is with yet another C - culture. Protect yourselves, your workers and your families by instilling a culture of safety and awareness within your workplace. Equip your teams with the tools to protect themselves without stripping them of their need to think for themselves.
Make safety priority one, so we can ensure a safer industry for everyone.
- Henry Gratte is a Future Farmers Network director.