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The 13th Australasian Flexible Pavements Industry Conference on Health, Safety and Environment was held on 11-12 August and was judged a great success with more than 100 delegates attending.
AAPA Chairman Louis Nucifora welcomed Gary Liddle, CEO of Vicroads who opened the conference. Gary emphasised the importance of health, safety and the environment and described some of the actions being taken by Vicroads. Importantly he emphasised that road construction authorities and industry must work together to protect employees, the public and the environment.
Gary’s presentation was followed by a range of excellent speakers including Trevor Distin (CEO SABITA) and Chris Olsen (CEO Roading NZ). These two speakers highlighted initiatives in their countries and around the world. They also emphasised the importance of international issues such as the European REACH program is likely to lead to international standards for the safe handling of many chemicals including bitumen. Some of the training materials and approaches to training in South Africa and NZ are also relevant to Australia and AAPA will be exchanging training materials with these two countries to ensure that we can offer the best training to our members and clients.
Julie Sloan, Director of Julie Sloan Management Pty Ltd advised the audience that unless we actively plan our for the future our industry will have difficulty maintaining its essential level of skilled staff. Michael Rose, Manager, Project Safety Vicroads reviewed a wide range of safety practices and Gavin Merriman from Boral described the results of a detailed study into actual on site safety behaviour.
Several papers discussed the need for HS&E to be a partnership between employers and employees. This was particularly highlighted by Michael Sharpe of Sharpe Bros in his presentation on “Safety Bro”. Safety Bro is a cartoon character used to promote H&S and resulted in Sharpe Bros receiving the 2008 National Best Workplace Health and Safety Practices in Small Business award.
In closing the Conference AAPA CEO John Lambert thanked all those involved, including Scott Matthews from Hallmark Editions, the conference organisers.
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