Reporting dangerous work practices and risks to workers’ safety is now easier than ever with the NSW Government’s new mobile reporting system ‘Speak Up. Save Lives’.
Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, Kevin Anderson, said the new mobile reporting tool will make it easy for workers who see workplace risks which could lead to injury or death to send photos of dangerous conditions they see straight to SafeWork NSW.
“The new Speak Up reporting tool will give workers an easy, protected, and fast way to report any work health and safety problems they may be facing, direct to SafeWork NSW from their mobile device,” Mr Anderson said.

A Brisbane building company has been fined $110,000 after a worker fell and was impaled on a steel bar while constructing a Balmoral house.
Val Eco Homes Pty Ltd was sentenced recently in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, charged under section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, regarding a failure to comply with its work safety duty as a person with management and control of a workplace. The company is under external administration and working towards winding up. There was no appearance for the company at court and the prosecution proceeded ex parte.
The charge followed an incident at a housing construction site at Balmoral in February 2018. The site was very steep, sloping away from the street frontage towards a gully at the rear of the block.

Building practitioners and contractors are reminded to be on the alert for non-conforming soffit insulation as some importers and merchants try to liquidate obsolete stock. 
Under Australian Standard AS 5637.1, soffit insulation installed as an exposed lining has since NCC2016 been required to undergo an AS ISO 9705 standard full room fire test, with materials installed on both the walls and ceiling of the test room. 
The 2015 edition of Australian Standard AS 5637 Part 1, Determination of fire hazard properties — Wall and ceiling linings, was referenced in the National Construction Code 2016 Volume One (NCC) from 1 May 2016 with a three -year transition period. That Standard requires the test specimen to be fixed to three walls and ceiling of the test room rather than wall or ceiling alone. The transition period (set out in the NCC) allowed the use of test reports indicating the group number of wall and ceiling linings determined under versions of the NCC applicable before 1 May 2016, could be used up until 1 May 2019. ​

Sydney has won the battle of the cranes adding another nine to the skyline, with a focus on commercial projects – while Melbourne has seen a decline of the same number.
The total number across Sydney increased by nine to 319, while Melbourne saw a decline to 213, according to a count undertaken by surveyors Rider Levett Bucknall.

Victoria's construction industry receives half a million to help women enter the industry. Shelley Goodwin was the first female labourer to be hired in Victoria for the construction company she works for, which employs more than 500 men nationally.
​After helping her Dad with the handy work at home, she knew she liked working with her hands, but didn't begin her carpentry apprenticeship until age 30, because of the stigma surrounding women in the building industry.
"There is a misconception that the construction industry is a harsh and brutal place, but it's not, it's supportive," she said.
"There are a lot of women out there who can do this sort of work and would really enjoy the roles that the construction industry provides."

No accident is necessary for WHS regulators to commence a safety breach prosecution. Last month, a principal contractor in Victoria was hit with a $35,000 fine plus $10,112 in costs for breaching the state’s Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 by failing to ensure its subcontractor prevented falls from height risks to its workers. Star (Australia) Construction Pty Ltd, which trades as Knight Building Group, had engaged V & R Solid Plastering Pty Ltd to install polystyrene and plaster exterior walls at two double-storey townhouses in Caulfield North in Melbourne.

Two workers have been injured after a trench collapsed at a construction site in August 2019. The workers were installing footings in a trench next to a recently completed stormwater pipeline at the time, according to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHS Queensland), which is investigating the incident. Ground collapse is one of the main risks in excavation work and can happen quickly and without warning, leaving workers virtually no time to escape, the regulator said. While they do not yet know what caused the collapse, WHS Queensland said the type of ground, previous backfill, ground water, rain and loading could all contribute to the failure of unsupported trenches.

October, Australia’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, provides an opportunity for us all to focus on breast cancer and its impact on those affected by the disease in our community.
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Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among Australian women (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer). Survival rates continue to improve in Australia with 89 out of every 100 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer now surviving five or more years beyond diagnosis.