Agsafe at the Northern Australia Food Futures Conference
drumMUSTER and ChemClear’s National Program Manager Lisa Nixon recently attended the Northern Australia Food Futures Conference held between 11-13 April in Darwin.
The bi-annual conference is organised and hosted by NT Farmers’ small team. This year there were hundreds of delegates which included federal politicians along with state Primary Industries Agricultural, Fisheries and Water Ministers from their respective states. These politicians shared ideas with farmers, representatives from grower associations and investors. This collaboration was facilitated by a great line up of local media personalities.
Hearing from people living and working in northern Australia proved to be very interesting considering all of the challenges this area of Australia has to overcome. Challenges such as service providers, climate, transportation and labour issues including cost, skills availability and geographic distances.
The opportunities to develop northern Australia are significant with the conference having a positive focus on the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper and Northern Australia Development White Paper. These papers set the scene for governments input into establishing the framework and future development of the north.
Having key state and federal government ministers, and senior government and industry staff participate was also an important part of the knowledge sharing of the event. drumMUSTER and ChemClear were pleased, once again, to partner with NT Farmers in their trade display at the Conference and provide them with our ongoing support in the development of Agriculture in the north.
Notifiable incidences
A notifiable incident is a work-related serious injury or illness, dangerous incident, or of course a death and even “near misses”. It doesn’t matter if the person is an employee, contractor or member of the public, it must be reported to the state regulator immediately and the incident site secured for inspection.
Do you know who is responsible for reporting incidents in your workplace?
Safe Work Australia has a comprehensive fact sheet that list all they types of illnesses and injuries that should lead to notification, what information is required to be reported and who the contacts are in each state and territory.
You can find the fact sheet here
Proposed changes to the Dangerous Goods Code
Recently Agsafe notified members of proposed changes to the Dangerous Goods Code which we believe are worth repeating. The code is reviewed and updated every two years by the National Transport Commission (NTC).
Amendments to edition 7.4, to come into place on 1 January 2017, include:
• Adding new materials to the list of dangerous goods
• Changes to packing and labelling requirements
• Changes to lithium battery transport requirements
• Preventing drivers on provisional or learner licences from holding dangerous goods licences
• New emergency response codes (HAZCHEM) for ammonium nitrate substances
Agsafe will update the industry Code of Practice in line with the changes to version 7.4 and keep members notified.
You can read our fact sheet on the potential changes to the Code on the Agsafe website and access more detail about the changes on the
Federal government website.
Are we ready for global harmonisation?
On 1 January 2017, the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is scheduled to be implemented and become part of chemical manufacturing and trade processes. This is in addition to the existing Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority product assessment, labelling and registration process. Agsafe is becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of detail about the implementation of GHS, and eight months out we have no idea what it will mean for our members. Our questions include; will all products need to carry the new labels on that date? Or only those produced after that date? If the former, what will be the status of containers that do not have the new labels.
Additional hazard and precautionary statements are to be added, but signal words and pictograms are not required on labels for AgVet chemicals. For more information on this topic you can click here and read the information sheets for manufacturers and businesses handling and storing agvet chemicals. You will note that these communiqués do not yet provide any answers to the questions raised above.
CropLife Australia is concerned about the changes, stating that they will actually compromise safety and add unnecessary costs into the system. You can read their most recent media release on the topic on the CropLife website.
Agsafe will keep resellers aware of the debate and what changes they can expect, such as how it will affect their business and what they may need to do to remain compliant with regulation.
We will be presenting a webinar on GHS next month which will be free for all members to attend. More information about this event will be broadcast in the next week or so.
NSW Deputy Coroner calls for new waste management procedures
In early April this year, the NSW Deputy Coroner Hugh Dillon highlighted the importance of new procedures to address the impact of extreme weather events on waste and recycling facilities.
Mr Dillon’s comments came after a finding that involved the death of a worker who drowned during localised flooding at a Sydney waste management facility was handed down.
For more information on Mr Dillon’s comments click here.
