Alex Thomas – #PlantASeedForSafety
Rural Safety advocate Alex Thomas talks about her #PlantASeedForSafety initiative, aimed at putting women at the forefront of farm safety.
After a lifetime of caring for her station-owner father and working in the WH&S sector of regional industry, Alex is passionate about making safety awareness an everyday way of life and not a box-ticking exercise in compliance.
As Alex says, “paperwork never saved a life.”
She explains what makes rural women the key to more engaged safety practices.
“Women have a completely different attitude to risk and they are usually the closest other person to the work,” she says.
“Plus they care,” she adds as a comparison to a legislated approach.
“#PlantASeedForSafety is all about spinning yarns to save lives”, Alex says.
“It lets rural women share their stories a way to highlight rural safety risks and lessons.”
From Alex’s own story to the discussion about attitudes to safety, this podcast makes clear that rural safety goes beyond minimising the risk of injury or death – it means considering the physical health, mental health and personal wellbeing of everyone in our unique working environment.
At the end of the day, farm workers should be coming home to their families safe and well.