Speakers

Patrizia Cassaniti

Founder & Director

Touched by Christopher & Let’s Talk about Safety

Patrizia is an International award-winning work health and safety advocate with a compelling and confronting life story. In 2021, she won the Gold Stevie award as Maverick of the year, which recognizes the achievements of female individuals who have affected positive change on their companies and/or industries. Has also been recognized as Top 100 Women in Construction and In March 2023, was honoured to be the NSW Woman of the Year for the Canterbury/Bankstown District

She shares the crucial lessons everyone in construction, manufacturing and engineering need to hear to shift out complacency and create a safe working environment for themselves and all their work mates.
Her devastating story is of a tragedy that was never an accident, but an incident waiting to happen, all because of complacency that took her 18-year-old son’s life.

Be prepared for an emotional and inspiring journey with this powerful and potentially life-saving session where the usual ‘she’ll be right mate’ or ‘it won’t happen to me’ situation will make you evaluate your daily work practises and make your family the reason why you work safe every day.

She has had extensive coverage on the media, 60 minutes and Morning shows and has helped develop an App together with SafeWork NSW, that allows workers to speak up anonymously and is a committee member of the SafeWork Family and Injured workers support group. Her safety advocacy led her to complete a CERT IV in Work Health and Safety to educate herself, so she can reign new laws in her son’s honour, by bringing tougher penalties and greater consequences for unsafe work practices. Her foundation, Touched by Christopher Ltd, raises money to help families who have lost a loved one in construction, financially, so that they can grieve without the everyday burden .

Sidney Dekker

Professor and Director

Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia

Sidney Dekker (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor and Director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and Professor in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands. Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across four continents. Continuing a strong scientific tradition in human factors and safety, he has won worldwide acclaim for pushing its boundaries. He coined the terms ‘Safety Differently’ and ‘Restorative Just Culture’ in the 2010s, which have since turned into global movements for change. They encourage organisations to declutter their bureaucracy and enhance the capacities in people and processes that make things go well—and to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t. His work has inspired generations of professionals and consultants globally. Many today will recognise Sidney’s ideas and concepts in for example ‘HOP,’ ‘Learning Teams,’ the ‘New View,’ and more.

An avid piano player and pilot, he has been flying the Boeing 737 for an airline on the side. He is a trained mediator and Chaplain.

Sidney is prolific and bestselling author of, most recently: Random Noise; Stop Blaming; Foundations of Safety Science; The Safety Anarchist; The End of Heaven; Just Culture; Safety Differently; The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’; Second Victim; Drift into Failure; Patient Safety; Compliance Capitalism, and Do Safety Differently.

He has co-directed the documentaries ‘Safety Differently,’ 2017; ‘Just Culture,’ 2018, ’The Complexity of Failure,’ 2018, and ‘Doing Safety Differently,’ 2019.

His work has well over 19,000 citations and an h-index of 61. Stanford has ranked Sidney among the world’s top 1% most influential scientists since Newton. More at sidneydekker.com.

Bernie Doyle

Chairman, President & CEO

NSCA Foundation

Bernie Doyle is the CEO and Chairman of the NSCA Foundation and the Secretary General of the Asia-Pacific Occupational Safety and Health Organization (APOSHO).

His involvement with the NSCA began in 1991 as a Director in the former South Australian Division. As President of the South Australian Board, he played a key role in merging it into a national body. At APOSHO, an international body formed in 1985 to prevent occupational accidents and diseases, Bernie continues to lead efforts to improve workplace safety standards and address emerging risks, including mental health, across the region

Kate Cole

Director

Cole Health

Kate Cole OAM is a multiple award-winning scientist, engineer and Certified Occupational Hygienist who has dedicated her career to the prevention of work-related disease.

Her work on preventing silicosis has been informed by the completion of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and her extensive work on major construction and tunnelling projects in Australia and abroad. Kate is regularly sought after to provide her expert opinion on issues relating to airborne hazards including respirable crystalline silica. Kate is the past President of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists, the former co-chair of the National Silicosis Prevention Strategy Expert Steering Committee, and a member of the NSW Dust Diseases Board.

In recognition of her outstanding contributions to workplace health and safety, Kate was awarded the Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia and was included in the Covid-19 Honour Roll in the 2022 Australia Day Honours. Kate now works as an independent consultant while completing her PhD at the University of Sydney where she is researching respirable crystalline silica exposures to tunnel construction workers.

Dr Tristan Casey

Co-founder and Director

New View Safety

With a career in workplace health and safety spanning 15 years, he has consulted nationally and internationally across a diverse range of industries. Dr Casey is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist with two doctoral degrees, including his PhD that involved development and validation of the award-winning LEAD model. His passion is translating abstract concepts into practical tools that have measurable impact.

Alan Girle

Barrister

Macpherson Kelley

Alan is enrolled as solicitor and barrister on the High Court roll, the Supreme Court rolls in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the High Court roll in New Zealand. He practises throughout Australia under a Queensland Practising Certificate. Alan has been in practice since 1991 and more recently has been recognised in the consecutive years of 2014-2024 in the Doyle’s Guide as a “Leading Workplace Health & Safety Lawyer – Queensland”. He has also been selected by his peers in consecutive years for inclusion in the 2014-2025 Editions of The Best Lawyers in Australia in the “Occupational Health & Safety Law” category, these achievements confirm that Alan is one of the country’s best lawyers who can assist clients in defending and negotiating government-initiated prosecutions.

Dr Trajce Cvetkovski

Senior Lecturer

Peter Faber Business School

Dr Trajce Cvetkovski is Senior Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety Management at ACU. He is a practising academic who teaches WHS law, principles of workplace health, safety, wellbeing and psychosocial risk.

Trajce specialises in WHS compliance and regulation and worked for Queensland’s Office of Industrial Relations for 13 years. He has prosecuted several complex matters including heat exhaustion, bullying, electrical safety, and reckless conduct. His research interests include sentencing inconsistencies under harmonised legislation, the misrepresentation of WHS/OHS and wellbeing in popular culture, and costs associated with achieving compliance.

Sara Pazell

Principal Work Design Strategist

ViVA health at work

Sara Pazell is a principal work design strategist for ViVA health at work. She helps corporates and communities craft their challenge statements and manage transformation when introducing new technologies, new environments, or systems changes. She asks, “How to design when humans are part of the system? What can we dream that can become our new reality?”

Sara specialises in transformative, participatory, action research to solve real-world challenges. Sara is a rabble rouser in the WhyWork Podcast, the director of ViVA heat at work and ViVID design labs, an educator and research with Australian universities, and an advisory on global and national wellness design accreditation and training programs.

Jim Kelly

Director, Health & Safe Design

SafeWork NSW

As Director of Health & Safe Design, Jim leads areas such as psychological health & safety, healthcare, workplace health, ergonomics, and return to work. His diverse career includes prevention, early intervention, injury management, and regulation. Jim adopts a holistic approach to business and risk, focusing on the physical and psychological health of workers. He is passionate about driving positive behaviour change and preventing injury through the design of health and safe work.

In his spare time Jim is a volunteer Board member with the charity “Heart on my sleeve” a lifesaver and active member of his local surf life saving committee and a family man who loves to get active in the outdoors.

Natalee Johnston

Founderr

Skilful Decisions

Natalee Johnston is the director of Skilful Decisions, a consulting company that focuses on education of human interactions and performance to enhance safety.

Natalee’s expertise in understanding human factors and the influence of organisational culture stems from her 20 plus years military service as a helicopter pilot instructor and safety specialist. Natalee is a member of the TOLL ACE Training Centre Human Factors team developing and delivering human factors courses for TOLL’s HEMS and AVN capability. She is passionate about safety and education, with a Masters in Business, Post grad certificate in Accident Investigation and Diplomas in Quality Auditing and WHS.

Hawk Vagg

Inspirational Safety Speaker

In December 1998, Hawk Vagg was standing on a tractor’s front-end loader on a farm near Jerilderie NSW, elevated so he could cut down the higher branches of a huge river red gum which had toppled in a recent storm; as he chain sawed off the last big trunk, he miscalculated the way it would fall and it knocked him off the tractor. Hawk plunged onto a steep river bank – a fall that changed his life forever.

Hawk Vagg was 38 years old with a wife and four boys aged eleven, nine, three and two when he became a quadriplegic. Hawk’s journey from devastation and despair back to living a full and productive life taught him a lot about himself and life in general. He realised that life is all about ‘attitude’ – controlling your attitude.

He also learnt that when life deals you tough cards, that it doesn’t just impact you, but can also be devastating for all the people around you. Hawk learnt during his recovery that ‘it wasn’t just about him’, and he was inspired to share his story and teach people about ‘attitude, safety and culture’ so that other families don’t have to go through the type of pain that impacted his family.

Visit Hawks page to learn what he is doing to help educate others on the impacts of a she’ll be right” attitude! www.safetyspeaker.com.au

Robyn Pearce

Executive Director

WorkSafe TAS

Robyn Pearce has been the Executive Director at WorkSafe Tasmania since March 2020.

Robyn’s pathway to WorkSafe Tasmania was through strategic human resource management and industrial relations in the public sector, with a focus on electricity supply and emergency services. Robyn led the introduction of strategic work health and safety frameworks in Tasmania Fire Service and chaired the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Work Health and Safety Group. Robyn was the industry lead end user for the occupational health and safety research program for the inaugural Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre.

Robyn’s particular interest and passion lies in leveraging organisational behaviour to achieve safer workplaces for industry and workers through positive and collaborative working relationships..

Andrea Fox

Executive Director, WHS Engagement & Policy Services |

Office of Industrial Relations, QLD.

Andrea’s career has spanned the public sector in Queensland, as well as working for a non-government organisation and teaching in the university sector. Andrea is genuinely committed to the principles of collaborative policy design, knowing that enduring and effective policy solutions will only ever be devised when crafted with those effected by them. She has policy making experience working with a diverse range of industries including work health and safety, industrial relations, vocational training, transport, energy, natural resources and child protection reform.

She is the Queensland member of the Strategic Issues Group of Safe Work Australia, where she contributes to the national development of work health and safety policy. Andrea has also chaired a number of tripartite Steering Groups for collaborative policy development and regulation setting across construction, agriculture and psychosocial hazards.

Andrea is an advocate for reconstructing contemporary growth and development economics away from GDP and towards the reconciliation of economics with ecology. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Economics, as well as a Masters in Social Science (Economics) from The University of Queensland.

Jacqueline Agius

Work Health and Safety Commissioner |

WorkSafe ACT

Jacqueline Agius was appointed to the role of ACT Work Health and Safety Commissioner in April 2020. Ms Agius is also the Commissioner of the Labour Hire Licencing scheme which commenced on 27 May 2021. Ms Agius is an experienced leader with extensive practice in both industrial, and work health and safety laws.

Ms Agius is committed to improving health and safety standards in Canberra workplaces and creating a strong safety culture in the ACT Community. She believes this is achievable with a strong regulatory response and holding duty holders accountable for creating safe work environments. She is passionate about achieving positive outcomes and improving the livelihood of Canberra workers.

Ms Agius is also dedicated to addressing psychosocial hazards at local workplaces and has established a dedicated team at WorkSafe ACT to regulate these risks.

Anna Cody

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

Dr Cody started as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner in September 2023.
Before this, Dr Cody had a distinguished career as an academic, as a lawyer specialising in discrimination and as a passionate advocate for human rights.  Her work over the years has included substantial advocacy to various United Nations human rights committees when they have reviewed Australia’s and other nations’ fulfilment of their human rights obligations.
Most recently she was the Dean of the School of Law and Professor at Western Sydney University for 4.5 years, leading education and research impact within the School to better reflect the diversity of the community and the intersection of law and justice

Peter Mochrie

Master of Ceremonies

Peter Mochrie is a celebrated Australian actor with a career spanning over forty years. Renowned for his versatile talent, Peter has also excelled as a presenter, MC, corporate speaker, and auctioneer. As a producer of Fine Films & Profiles, he brings stories to life with finesse. Peter is highly regarded as a top-tier teacher in acting, public speaking, and presenting, both on camera and live. His expertise in “The Art of Presenting” has made him a sought-after mentor for aspiring professionals, cementing his status as a leading figure in the entertainment and corporate training industries

Glenn Farrell

Executive Director

SafeWork SA

His career began in mechanical engineering within the aerospace industry in England where he spent 15 years working for Rolls Royce, a manufacturer of industrial and commercial jet aircraft engines.

Glenn’s move to Australia secured him a role at SafeWork SA and for the past 19 years has worked across all areas of the Regulator, developing and implementing successful processes and delivering successful enforcement outcomes.

His extensive experience in world class processes in the UK and operating in a regulatory environment, has enabled him to provide compliance, investigative, technical and educational support services to a variety of stakeholders and become the State’s WHS Regulator.

Glenn is South Australia’s representative at the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities and Safe Work Australia.

Michael Sellinger

Partner | Workplace, Relations & Safety Team

Holding Redlich

Michael is a partner at Holding Redlich where he navigates the intricacies of workplace relations across various domains. With an unwavering commitment to work health and safety, he possesses a unique expertise in this field. Michael’s clientele spans an extensive spectrum, encompassing construction and manufacturing, agribusiness, media, education, professional services, transport, and government sectors.

Recognised for his exceptional legal acumen, Michael has earned a place in The Best Lawyers in Australia guide for Occupational Health and Safety Law since 2020. Moreover, his profound understanding and remarkable achievements have led him to be acknowledged as one of New South Wales’ leading workplace health and safety lawyers by Doyle’s Guide, a distinction he has held since 2021. Michael’s exemplary track record and unwavering dedication to his clients make him an invaluable asset to our firm and a trusted advocate in the field of workplace relations.

Kelly Ferguson

Our Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Dr Tristan Casey

Co-founder & Director

New View Safety

Patrizia Cassaniti

Founder & Director

Touched by Christopher Foundation & Let's Talk about Safety

Sidney Dekker

Professor & Director

Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane

Hawk Vagg

Inspirational Safety Speaker

Alan Girle

Barrister

Macpherson Kelley

Andrea Fox

Executive Director

WHS Engagement and Policy Services

Anna Cody

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

Bernie Doyle

Chairman, President & CEO

NSCA Foundation

Dr Trajce Cvetkovski

Senior Lecturer

Peter Faber Business School

Glenn Farrell

Executive Director

SafeWork SA

Jacqueline Agius

Work Health and Safety Commissioner

WorkSafe ACT

Jim Kelly

Director, Health & Safe Design

SafeWork NSW

Kate Cole

Director

Cole Health

Natalee Johnston

Founder

Skilful Decisions

Peter Mochrie

Master of Ceremonies

National Safety Conference

Robyn Pearce

Executive Director

WorkSafe TAS

Sara Pazell

Principal Work Design Strategist

ViVA Health at Work