Queensland’s Industrial Relations Minister, Grace Grace, has marked the launch of Electrical Safety Week (10 – 14 September) and Energy Queensland’s Safety Heroes Program, saying there has never been a more important time to shine a light on electrical safety at home, at school and in the workplace.
Run by Energy Queensland, the Safety Heroes Program is designed to teach primary school students how electricity works and how to behave safely around electrical equipment. The program was launched at the New Farm State School to strengthen the message of the initiative which helps keep children safe.
However, Ms Grace said that it is just as important to spread the message of electrical safety within the building and construction industry.
“We have 56,000 licensed electrical workers in Queensland and almost 12,000 licensed electrical contractors,” she said, “despite our best efforts, the message to work safely doesn’t always get through…”
The Minister announced that the government understands why workers decide to take unnecessary risks in order to get a job finished faster and meet their tight deadlines, but that it can have tragic consequences.
“Since this time last year, there have been 33 serious electrical incidents in Queensland. While none of these incidents were fatal, we cannot focus enough on safety and that’s exactly what Electricity Safety Week is all about,” she said.
With events tailored for industry leaders, electrical workers, contractors and apprentices, this year’s Electrical Safety Week is a great opportunity to focus on improving safety culture within any workplace or business.
The highlight of the week will be tomorrow’s Electricity Safety Summit at Victoria Park Golf Complex, presenting patrons with an opportunity to engage with industry leaders and learn practical solutions to drive a safety culture from the top down.
More information on the events held at this year’s Electrical Safety Week can be found here.