Sharing OHS knowledge across sectors

For those of you who missed David Caple’s session exploring his experience of 50 years working in OHS and Ergonomics, this presentation is essential viewing. David, in his usual urbane and accessible manner, recounted highlights and insights from his many years of interacting with work, workers and workplaces. His international and local experience across a wide range of industries provides something we can all understand, regardless of our particular work focus. 

David reflected on what has changed and what has stayed the same, noting that regardless of when and where we are working, it is important to use a systems approach and listen to what people are really saying, to understand fully what is happening and important.

As a regular and very popular presenter at CSG events for many years, David's observations, along with his humour particularly around some of the challenges we face in practice, are both practical and informative, and are engagingly summarised in this presentation.

I, along with others who have worked with David, have always known him as the gentleman of our profession, an elder from whom we can all learn. This presentation captures the depth of what we expect from a practitioner of such experience, with important reflections both of the past and what we may expect in the future.

David’s considerable knowledge and practice across so many different work experiences provoked a range of questions from an interested audience, with answers that encouraged further thoughtful reflection and challenges for all of us. An added extra at a personal level, was his assertion that this will be his final presentation in his current role as he threatens to retire, yet again. We shall see!

I suspect this is not David’s swansong presentation for CSG, but just in case it might be, I encourage any of you who missed it and have an interest in how our profession has grown and developed over the last 50 years, to listen to and enjoy this very accessible and entertaining recording.  And if he does present again, I urge you to be there to engage with him personally – we need to make the most of these special opportunities!

Financial members can access all of David's previous presentations by going to the Speakers section of the website and type 'Caple' in the search box (log in first).

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Site Visit -The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD)

Date & Time: Tuesday 8 September 2026, noon

CODE-CSG Hybrid Lunchtime Presentation - via zoom only

CSG Exclusive Site Visit - please note early RSVP: Monday 7 September 2026, in person only.

Site Visit:  The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD)

Location: 27 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy VIC 3065
NE corner of Victoria Parade and Nicholson St, Fitzroy - next to St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne

The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD) – Australia’s first hospital-based medical discovery centre –officially opened its doors in June this year, marking the culmination of more than two decades of planning, collaboration and investment in Australia’s biomedical engineering future.

Central Safety Group is privileged to have the opportunity to visit this brand new centre on Tuesday 8th September....read more

Note: RSVP by close of business COB Monday 31 August.  When booking, please ensure you select the September Event from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP.

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Modernising and simplifying safety

If you are looking for ways to improve your safety presence and processes, Scott McMillan delivered some great advice and suggestions in his presentation.

It was information-packed and thoroughly engaging due to his rich experience in different workplaces and situations. He is currently Director of Safety at Melbourne Park, a site which contains six huge venues for elite sports, concerts and major entertainment events.  Before a career in safety, he worked as an electrician and instrumentation technician in a range of places, including Antarctica!

Supported by examples, videos and  illustrations, Scott’s talk offered some useful and fresh perspectives on how to approach and manage safety. Importantly, it also showed how to adopt emerging technologies when preparing safety information and training, making them more accessible. His first advice was to establish a strong safety brand in your workplace: the message is to make it all about the work and meet your audience where they are.

There were some good basic tips and ideas on safety communications, as well as the eye-opening statistic from studies that show around 44% of adult Australians are not operationally literate. Therefore, it is crucial to present material that people both want to, and are able to, read.  There was also some fantastic advice on how to make board papers pack a bigger punch.

Scott emphasised the importance of decluttering safety, to prioritise and distil what can amount to many dozens of safety procedures, hundreds of pages and countless thousands of words, often written in language and references that are a challenge to follow. 

Some take-home messages from Scott's impressive presentation were: make your system easy to use, not easy to audit; fix the work, and safety will happen; chase safety in isolation and you will get paperwork, not results.

As a complement to Scott's talk, financial members may like to re-visit the presentation by John Ansley from Knowby in October last year: AI know-how and OHS (log in first).

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Sharing OHS knowledge across sectors

Date & Time: Tuesday 11 August 2026, noon

CSG Hybrid Lunchtime Presentation - via zoom only

Speaker:  Presented by David Caple AM, David Caple & Associates

Topic: Sharing OHS knowledge across sectors

What are some OHS initiatives that can be shared across the "legal supply chain", health sector and banking industry? This will be the subject of Central Safety Group's lunchtime presentation by David Caple AM on Tuesday 11 August.

David’s distinguished career has spanned the last 50 years as a researcher and consultant in multiple industry sectors. He sees his work as a privilege, and we are equally privileged to have him as our August speaker....read more

Note: RSVP by close of business Monday 10 August.  When booking, please ensure you select the August Event from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP.

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Climate change as an OHS issue

Central Safety Group members recently heard from Sam Hall, PhD candidate and researcher at La Trobe University, on the growing significance of climate change as a workplace health and safety issue.

Drawing on her research through La Trobe University's Climate Change Adaptation Lab, Sam explored how climate change, the greatest health threat of the 21^st century, is creating new and emerging risks for worker health, safety and wellbeing. Her presentation highlighted that climate-related hazards extend well beyond heat exposure and extreme weather events, influencing physical health, psychological wellbeing, work design, and organisational resilience.

Sam shared preliminary findings from her research into how Australian occupational health and safety professionals perceive climate-related workplace risks. The findings suggested increasing recognition that climate change is not solely an environmental issue, but one that requires active consideration within workplace risk management frameworks.

A key theme of the presentation for me was the important role OHS professionals can play in helping organisations adapt to a changing climate. This includes identifying emerging risks, integrating climate considerations into existing safety systems, and supporting the development of resilient workplaces capable of responding to future challenges.

The discussion also explored the opportunities for organisations to take a proactive approach rather than waiting for climate-related impacts to occur. We were encouraged to consider how changing environmental conditions may affect our workforce and operations, and how these risks can be addressed through effective planning, leadership, work design and change management.

Sam's presentation challenged us to think differently about the intersection between climate change and workplace health and safety and sparked valuable discussion among attendees.

The session reinforced that climate change is increasingly becoming a core business and workforce issue, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the OHS profession as it supports organisations in adapting to a rapidly changing environment.

Thank you, Sam, for sharing your research and insights with the CSG community.

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Modernising and simplifying safety

Date & Time: Tuesday 14 July 2026, noon

CSG Hybrid Lunchtime Presentation - via zoom only

Speaker:  Presented by Scott McMillan, Director of Safety, Melbourne Park

Topic: Innovation in action – simplifying safety through technology & engagement

New technologies, behavioural studies and changes in the workplace are leading to more efficient and productive ways to manage workplace OHS.
Examples of this, and advice on how to put it into practice, will be discussed at Central Safety Group’s lunchtime event on 14 July by Scott McMillan, Director of Safety at Melbourne Park.

Scott has a track record of modernising and simplifying safety in complex, high-risk environments and he will demonstrate some of the new and evolving technologies that are influencing health and safety practices...read more

Note: RSVP by close of business Monday 13 July.  When booking, please ensure you select the July Event from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP.

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The OHS leadership dilemma

Kevin Jones zoomed in again this year, because he is currently working on Norfolk Island. It's great that we have flexibilty now with our hybrid events so that both Speaker and attendees can be anywhere in the country or even overseas - we have certainly expanded since the early days of being focussed around the Melbourne CBD.

Kevin Jones' horizons are very wide too: his wonderfully enquiring mind means he is always exploring OHS issues through the latest thinking and research in a range of publications, not always directly related to OHS. He also draws on his own experiences to delve into topics, such as what leadership looks like in safety. 

Kevin provoked our thinking with a number of questions and ideas, such as, Is leadership a quality or a title? When it comes to titles, what does Team Leader really mean? Is it just jargon to deflect from accountability? As always, Kevin pulled no punches when discussing his thoughts on this important topic.

The talk included his reviews of 12 recent publications that look very interesting. One of the attendees commented on the fact that they often read and buy many of Kevin's recommendations, so clearly this is a highlight of Kevin's presentations.

Financial members may wish to catch up with a couple of recent presentations relevant to Kevin's talk: In May last year Rob Dival spoke about How do OHS Professionals leverage power and influence tactics?, and in February this year Helen O'Keefe spoke about the qualities recruiters look for in executive leaders in her presentation What makes a great OHS executive. Login in first to view both of those.

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Climate change as an OHS issue

Date & Time: Tuesday 9 June 2026, noon

CSG Hybrid Lunchtime Presentation - via zoom only

Speaker:  Presented by Sam Hall, Researcher & PhD Candidate, La Trobe University

Topic: Climate change as an OHS issue

The impact of climate change on worker health and safety, and the response by OHS professionals, will be discussed by Sam Hall in a lunchtime presentation to Central Safety Group on Tuesday 9 June.

Sam is doing PhD research into how climate change is creating new and emerging risks for worker health, safety and wellbeing. She is also exploring how occupational health professionals in Australia perceive these impacts of climate change, as well the role they can play in workplace climate adaptation...read more

.

Kevin’s view is that there are two versions of leadership. One is a position or title that invokes leadership and is bestowed on people, but who then often need to learn how to be a leader

Note: RSVP by close of business Monday 8 June.  When booking, please ensure you select the June Event from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP.

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Working with the new psychosocial regulations

The large turnout of both financial members and non-members to this presentation confirmed what we already suspected: this topic is of great interest to the OHS community. The small room was full and the Zoom was overflowing.

Dr Natassia (Tas) Goode coped well with the few technical hitches we experienced as she discussed changes to the OHS Act that strengthen and clarify the need for employers to manage both physical and psychological health through the introduction of the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 which came into effect on 1 December last year.

Tas is Director of the new Psychological Health Division at WorkSafe Victoria, so we were privileged to have this opportunity to hear from such a high-level representative from the Regulator. 

When discussing risk management there was no real new information - assessment must be proactive, organisation-wide and include consultation with employees. A bullying case study was used to demonstrate the risk management process, although fatigue was specifically mentioned in inspector site visits.  The 16 psychosocial hazards listed are consistent with the Safe Work Australia list.

Of more interest was hearing about WorkSafe’s compliance and enforcement approach and the role of inspectors. It was good to see the wide range of levers available to inspectors to educate people and influence change with a strong emphasis on the provision of information and resources.

Tas stressed that, where surveys are used, they must be validated. She referred to a list of free validated surveys, but emphasised that they should not be the only form of consultation.  The topic of surveys came up during the extensive and lively discussion that followed the presentation –all of this is included in the recording of the event.

Tas outlined a whole range of FREE resources, tools and support available from WorkSafe Victoria for every range of business. She also talked about WorkSafe grants for industry trials and communities of practice, as well as a free time-limited program for 300 SMEs. Get in quickly!

Financial members may also be interested to re-visit our presentation from May 2024, where a WorkSafe panel discussed Psychological health & safety at work (login first).

Our thanks to Tas and to WorkSafe Victoria for providing this speaker and for their ongoing support as a corporate member of CSG. 

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The OHS Leadership Dilemma

Date & Time: Tuesday 12 May 2026, noon

CSG Hybrid Lunchtime Presentation - via zoom only

Speaker:  Presented by Kevin Jones, Editor, SafetyAtWorkBlog

Topic: The OHS leadership dilemma

For years, the key to positive change in OHS seems to have relied on leadership. However, the notion of leadership is something that people might recognise, but can’t describe. Kevin Jones, editor of the SafetyAtWorkBlog, will be zooming in at Central Safety Group’s lunchtime event on Tuesday 12th May to discuss this dilemma.

Kevin’s view is that there are two versions of leadership. One is a position or title that invokes leadership and is bestowed on people, but who then often need to learn how to be a leader.

...read more

Note: RSVP by close of business Monday 11 May.  When booking, please ensure you select the May Event from the dropdown list (shaded orange), to RSVP.

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