Interesting reading this week, about anyone who employs people, especially in the Rural industry, of a case in regards to an OH&S issue that has gone to the High Court, with a positive outcome for the employer expected before Xmas.
This particular case involves a farm manager who, when riding a quad bike, avoided going down a perfectly good road, and instead went over a steep incline whilst dragging pipes behind him. Unfortunately this person was killed and the full weight of the OH&S laws were applied to the owner who was nowhere near the incident. This particular case has been going for eight years and has cost the employer in excess of a million dollars to defend.
The employee had exceeded the capabilities of the machine and had had prior training when they had taken delivery of the quad. The case has now been argued to the High Court whereby the presumption of guilt by the employer has been questioned, with him also receiving a criminal record.
These draconian laws in cases like this now look to be considered along the lines of the “Reasonable Forseeability Test”, which basically means that these actions cannot be predicted in any shape or form by the employer. We all know that in agriculture especially, it is a dangerous workplace, but, there are some things that we cannot predict (ask one who knows!!!!).
This is now becoming a major factor in whether we employ people without the already acquired skills which means, how do the young fellas get a go…….

Certainly makes you realise how lucky we are as far as the overall drought situation is in NSW. We don’t have to go very far over the hill to find some dry country, and while we were all whinging about the red dust after the last few storms, bare a thought for the people out in the central west. They are, at this stage, shooting their stock, due to the grazing feed that was wiped out by the these dust storms. Not only was that bad enough, but the stock are now regarded as too weak to travel.
The other problem being that stock are now getting bogged in the ever-receding water line in dams and swamps. The only option now is to get the gun out.
Good to hear that a lot of the crops coming from the central and south west areas are starting to return a few bob to the farmers. The lack of water and “frosting” in some areas has knocked a lot of the crops around. Those people who got the extra showers and missed the cold weather, are getting some handy results. The only small problem being that properties as close as 5 or 10 kms apart got completely different results because some received, and some didn’t. I suppose that is what we call; in Agricultural terms, “the luck of the draw”.