PUTTING farm safety at the forefront of farmers’ minds is what National Farm Safety Week is all about.
To mark the week, the Victorian Government announced its allocation of $2.1 million to deliver Agriculture Victoria’s new Farming Safe and Well program, which addresses key farm safety risks and provides targeted initiatives to improve safety for people of all backgrounds.
The National Centre for Farmer Health will also receive $900,000 to continue its support of Victorian farming communities.
“Safety should be a non-negotiable in agriculture, and the Farming Safe and Well program will help everybody come home safe from their jobs,” Minister for Agriculture Gayle Tierney said.
“Farm Safety Week is an important reminder that we all have a part to play in farm safety, and we look forward to working collaboratively with industry to keep people safe and well.”
The Victorian Government will also continue to partner with the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) to deliver the Making our Farms Safer program, which provides farmers with dedicated safety specialists offering free support, upskilling and guidance.
VFF president Emma Germano said the project’s immediate focus would now be on farmers aged over 60 to help lower their over-representation in farming deaths and injuries.
“With the help of a working committee consisting of older farmers and their adult children, the project will develop specific content and resources, such as a guidebook and monthly newsletters to help make Victorian farms safer,” Ms Germano said.
“Farmers and regional communities told us loud and clear how important this project was to them, and I welcome the government’s commitment to helping us keep farmers safe.”
Former consulting agronomist and Kooloonong farmer Simon Craig told The Guardian he had been an avid farm safety advocate for the past few years after having a VFF farm safety inspector come out and assess the safety of his property.
“The hard part with farming is that we don’t have a set workplace like an office – we have a lot of things to control and a lot of risks that are there,” Mr Craig said.”We also deal with things like fatigue, long hours doing the same thing.
“They are things that we rely on individuals to be on top of, and you have just got to keep your staff aware.”
Improving the safety of his workplace for both him and his workers is something that Mr Craig believes is worth the investment of both time and money.
“To adhere to a lot of regulations, you need to invest money, and I guess that’s what puts a lot of people off,” he said.
“But I think for us, we are going to make the investment, so what we are doing is we are going to be engaging the OH&S people to help advise how we should do things rather than think we know what we are doing.
“Even as a consultant in agronomy, I knew that even though a farmer knows how to grow the crop, they still need someone to help identify things that they might not pick up, and that was the good thing in seeking help in regard to OH&S principles and laws.”
For more information about VFF’s Making Our Farms Safer program or to find resources, visit www.makingourfarmssafer.org.au
