Focus on farm safety

SAFEWORK NSW is urging farmers to take a few minutes to think about their health and safety during this week’s national Farm Safety Week.

The NSW agriculture sector continues to be one of the state’s highest risk industries with more than 7300 workers compensation claims from 2014/15-2016/17, which came at a cost of $167 million to the NSW workers compensation system. From June 2014 to the same time this year, there were also 35 fatal incidents on NSW farms.

SafeWork NSW executive director Tony Williams said SafeWork NSW was implementing a number of initiatives that are having a positive impact on farm safety.

“Quad bikes are the leading cause of death on farms and SafeWork NSW is leading the way to improve quad bike safety,” he said.