Rugby Legend Leads Safe Work Australia Week Events
Events across the country Oct. 24-30 will remind workers and employers about the importance of safe operations. Rugby League Hall of Famer Mal Meninga, this year's spokesman, will share his own story in an Oct. 25 forum launching the week.
The organizers of this month's Safe Work Australia Week 2010 recruited a national hero to be its spokesman. Mal Meninga, a champion rugby player and coach who is a member of the Australia Rugby Hall of Fame, is featured on posters for the week and will tell his own story of leadership and losing his father to an industrial accident.
The forum launching the Oct. 24-30 week and its "zero harm at work" theme is set for Oct. 25 in Brisbane, with Meninga and Cameron Dick, attorney general and minister for Industrial Relations, speaking. Dick and other speakers at the forum will discuss the new harmonized Occupational Health and Safety laws taking effect in Australia in January 2012. Speakers from Safe Work Australia and Workplace Health and Safety will outline details of key aspects of the new legislation.
Several events are scheduled to mark the week in Queensland, where about 100 work-related fatalities and nearly 30,000 serious injuries and diseases are recorded annually. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's events will address the 2012 law, musculoskeletal disorders, managing the risks of manual tasks, and improving health and safety at home.
Safe Work Australia is urging workers and organizations to become Safety Ambassadors for the week. This is the sixth year the week has been celebrated in October to raise awareness of workplace safety.