Reporting Events – Risk or Occurance based?

One of the positives in working across states and industries is that you are exposed to the different regulatory regimes within Australia of Health and Safety. Harmonised, mining, non harmonised, they all have their little quirks.

One jarring differences that a colleague pointed out to me was that in NSW, serious occurrences do not need to be reported if there was no risk of harm to individuals. See below;

This ran contrary to WA’s Mines Safety act where serious occurrences, regardless of risk must be reported. See below;

I’m normally a fan of all things risk based but as of late I’m starting to appreciate more and more that risk is very much in the eyes of the beholder.

My self-reflection thought for the day is what parts of the system I work with should request reporting based on risk, and which should be on occurrences?

If a tree falls in a Forrest and no one is there to hear it…

Paradoxically the occurrences that were chosen within the mining legislation that required mandatory reporting all posed a fatal risk or serious debilitating injury risk.

So what does your reporting process ask for and what effect would it have on your reporting levels? Is it Occurrence based on one person’s view of risk or risk based on many people’s determination of risk? Or maybe it’s both!