A POTENTIAL levy to help promote safety within the agricultural industry has drawn criticism from many of the State's farmers, who say it would do little to address the high number of work safety incidents occurring on farms.
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The levy is one of eight options to improve farm safety recently released by the agricultural industry inquiry, which was launched in June last year, following 12 fatalities in WA's agricultural sector in 12 months.
It is not one of six recommendations immediately supported by WorkSafe commissioner Darren Kavanagh for implementation, but he said the levy proposal was "noted" and the option would be discussed further with the State government.
While the majority of the recommendations appear to be supported by the industry, the suggestion that an industry levy fund, which has contributions matched by the government, be established to undertake ongoing media campaigns and other activities aimed at promoting safety in agriculture has drawn backlash from farmers.
Moora farmer Tracy Lefroy said the recommendation was a "knee-jerk response" which was unlikely to address the underlying causes of the high number of workplace safety incidents on WA farms.
"As an industry, we need to look hard at what we're doing and at what risk-taking we're allowing to become part of our culture - but I don't necessarily think a levy is going to solve that problem," Ms Lefroy said.
"You can end up paying levies with very little outcome or tangible results being seen.
"We need to look at why these unsafe practices are occurring in the first place and education is a part of that, but are there policies we can look at that take some of these pressure points away."
Ms Lefroy said chronic labour shortages within the sector had contributed to an increase in risk-taking behavior by farmers, who were also up against significant time constraints.
As a result of decisions being made by people outside of the industry, including Labor's proposal to ban the live sheep trade, the European Union's recent announcement of its intention to reduce the maximum residue limit for canola, combined with the potential threat of new levy's being imposed on WA's farmers, Ms Lefroy said the State's farmers were starting to feel disempowered.
"It feels like there is this compounding tide that is making it more and more difficult to produce food," she said.
Having engaged an independent third party with her husband to address the issue of safety on their own farm, Ms Lefroy said it had put the risks of both themselves and their staff into perspective and provided a greater understanding of their individual and overall responsibilities.
"It's so important to have practical safety solutions that have context to the business you are running," Ms Lefroy said.
"We all have farm consultants, we all have agronomists - so it's about recognising that farm safety is another layer of good management that needs to be brought in on our farms and into our everyday thinking."
Farmers have also called for more information on what specific activities the recommended levy would go towards, to ensure its effectiveness in improving farm safety.
Responding to the recomnmendations, WorkSafe said it would investigate establishing the Agriculture Advisory Assistance Fund - with seed funding to be obtained from internal sources - and it would liaise with WorkCover WA as a potential business partner.
WorkSafe was already in the process of putting together a team of six inspectors, in response to the inquiry's recommendation it establish a dedicated specialist agricultural team, including inspectors and liaison officers to conduct proactive regulatory and advisory inspections, reactive inspections and attend industry events.
Other recommendations, including the establishment of an agricultural safety advisory service to provide a free educational service to the farming sector and WorkSafe's engagement with machinery and equipment manufacturers and dealers to emphasise the need for machinery to be fit-for-purpose and remove the need for farmers to modify them, were also supported by WorkSafe.
Mr Kavanagh called for the inquiry after becoming increasingly concerned about the relatively high number of deaths in WA's agricultural sector.
Independent inquirer Pamela Scott received 62 written submissions and met with 25 individuals and organisations as part of the inquiry.
"I was concerned that in some agricultural workplaces, the workplace culture seemed to accept much greater risk than any other industry, with farm production appearing to be put before the safety of families and workers," Mr Kavanagh said.
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He said he would work with industry stakeholders, worker representatives and peak bodies to further drive work health and safety improvements in the agricultural sector, in line with the recommendations of the report.
Safe Farms WA executive officer Maree Gooch said the inquiry highlighted the need for strong leadership across the agriculture industry in relation to work health and safety.
"There is a strong focus on the need for education of and for industry and there will be an increase in the number of WorkSafe inspectors, specifically dedicated to working in the agriculture industry," Ms Gooch said.
