The Working Safe in Rural and Remote Australia Project is a collaborative effort of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), the Police Federation of Australia, the Queensland Teachers’ Union and CRANAplus. A Project Steering Committee comprised of representatives from each of these organisations is overseeing the project. The project is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA).
The Working Safe Project aims to promote and facilitate a national framework and whole-of-community response to safe work environments in rural and remote Australia. The project comprises three stages:
Stage 1
Stage 1 seeks to lay the foundation for preventing violence and building safer workplaces in rural and remote Australia. As part of Stage 1, Urbis Pty Ltd, a public policy consultancy firm, undertook a comprehensive literature review on the risks facing rural and remote professionals, the prevalence of workplace violence in rural and remote Australia, and current strategies and initiatives to respond to workplace violence. Urbis then undertook a survey of 624 health professionals, teachers and police in rural and remote Australia which looked at concerns about and experiences of workplace violence.
This website has also been developed as part of Stage 1. It provides employers and professionals with easy access to information on workplace violence, including strategies and initiatives to respond to workplace violence. It also provides case studies on models of cross-sector cooperation and whole-of-community responses to improving workplace safety that have been effectively implemented in different parts of Australia.
Stage 2
The second stage of the Working Safe Project aims to monitor the incidence of workplace violence in rural and remote communities and the effectiveness of current and future policies and strategies addressing violence in the workplace.
Stage 3
Stage 3 focuses on developing a multi-disciplinary professional working safety program for employers and professionals.
