In short:
National safety agency Farmsafe Australia wants farmers and agricultural businesses to ensure workers have first aid and trauma response training.
1n 2023, 32 people died while working on a farm, and Farmsafe says training can be the difference between life and death.
What’s next?
The agency is rolling out pilot training programs and is encouraging business owners to prioritise first aid training.
There are calls for more farmers to improve their first aid training, as a newly minted group of specialist workplace inspectors plans to visit more agribusinesses across Western Australia.
Since 2001, 1,742 people have died on farms across Australia, including 32 people last year.
Almost 90 per cent of those people were men.
In 2022, Western Australia’s WorkSafe Commissioner established an inquiry into the agricultural industry, which made eight recommendations.
One of those was to create a dedicated, specialist agricultural team within the new WorkSafe Group.
Executive officer for advocacy group Safe Farms WA, Stephen Brown, said the recommendation had now been acted on and the number of inspectors had increased across WA.
“WorkSafe have been actively training more inspectors specifically for the ag industry, they will be regionally located,” he said.
“There is an increased chance that you will, maybe, have them knock on your door or ring you up and say we want to come and have a look.”
Executive officer of Farmsafe Australia, Stevi Howdle, said there were simple steps every farmer could take to improve safety culture, such as undertaking first aid training.
She said people had a much better chance of survival if they received treatment within the first four hours of injury.
“First aid training can be the difference between life or death, literally,” she said.
“There’s a lot of farms out there that do this sort of training well, but I think raising awareness of how critical and important it is to have this skillset on hand, particularly in these rural and remote settings, is really important.”
Farmsafe is piloting a program where it and first aid providers travel to farms to provide first aid training and safety information.
Prevention is best
Duncan Burt is a cropping manager on a Kojonup farm in Western Australia’s Great Southern region and believes providing a safe working environment is vital.
He said agricultural workplaces should have at least two or more staff members trained in first aid.
“If a group of people go out, at least one of them should know how to look after someone with a snakebite or a bleeding injury,” he said.
“Or if someone has a stroke or faints or fits, being able to understand how to look after someone is important.”
First aid kits are placed in all vehicles on the property and there are several snakebite kits and first aid treatment stations in the sheds.
“I think the most important thing is avoiding the risk, rather than trying to fix the problem,” Mr Burt said.
“Common sense used to be a thing, but these days you can’t rely on people understanding common sense, you have to treat everyone as not knowing the basics.”
Mr Burt said basic strategies such as using location tracking on mobile phones when working alone were also useful.
Safe Farms WA’s Stephen Brown said there were some simple things farmers could do to make their workplace safer for all.
“Do your own inspection of your property,” he said.
“Look for obvious things like electric cables lying on the floor, safety equipment for your staff, glasses, PPE when they’re dealing with chemicals — even something as simple as a toolbox talk.”
Mr Brown said the industry needs to come together to improve farm safety.
“Everyone at the end of the day just wants to see everyone come home every night safe and sound,” he said.
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