Individual / Organisation name:Murray Mackenzie

What state/territory: Qld

Review of the National Guidance Material for Working Safely on the Waterfront

Public Comment Response Form

Complete and submit this form by5pm AEST friDAY 10 AUGUSt 2012to

Comments on content of the national guidance material
Section/page no. / Comment
Comments on additional issues identified in section 4.2 of the Discussion Paper
Section/page no. / Comment
Hatchmen / I've been on the waterfront for around 15 years and by far the most dangerous place to work is down below in a hatch lifting all sorts of cargo..the amount of times as a crane driver that you see people experienced and notso experienced put themselves in dangerous situations is staggering....loads often snag, catch, shift and swing with out warning in all directions due to that one little bracket or edge that some onecant see getting caught on some thing ....the foreman below only has 1 set of eyes and can't be every where...eyes from above wheather they be wharfies or supervisors are critical....in any risk assessment where there is an opportunity to remove the risk of someone being crushed to death because experienced supervision is watching and directing them of potential hazards should as a mimimum be the risk control in place...i would not feel safe for myself or my team with out the hatchman...
Stevedoring qualifications / Should the guidance material refer to the qualifications (Cert II, Cert III and Cert IV in Stevedoring) that have been developed for the stevedoring industry?
because of the largely casual work force and the fear of job security...untrained workers are prepared to work unsafely just so as not to upset the supervisors whom are allways under inflated pressure to inrease or maintain high levels of productivity...a well trained work force that follow well designed safe systems of work with the proper resources to do the job will allways outperform under trained and under resourced workplaces..in the long term training pays off.
Safety Induction skill-set / Should the newly developed stevedoring ‘safety skill-set’ be used to underpin safety inductions?
great idea ..when i was a trainer safety was always my first priority..thats why i'm no longer a trainer the company are prepared to water down inductions and let people learn by their mistakes on the job..
Use of checklists / Should the safety checklists, which set out examples of the types of hazards, and acceptable/unacceptable ways of handling those hazards, be maintained in the guidance material?
we dontdont even use these enough ...other dangerous industries use take 5 or similar for each new task or variation of an existing task ..safe systems that identify and reduce hazards should be encouraged at all levels..
Comments on the implementation of the national guidance material in each jurisdiction which may have included launches, information and training sessions, and whether it has been useful in the workplace as a resource for improving safety practices.
Section/page no. / Comment
Other comments
great work done so far on this initiative..it's been a long time coming for this industry that has been behind on safety standards for too long ..