On 12 February 2025, the defendant pleaded guilty to an offence under the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld). The legal basis for the complaint was that:

1. the defendant, as a person who could affect the safety and health of persons at a mine, was obliged to take any reasonable and necessary course of action to ensure anyone was not exposed to an unacceptable level of risk;
2. the defendant failed to discharge that obligation; and
3. the defendant’s failures caused grievous bodily harm to another person.

Specifically, the defendant’s offending concerned failures to ensure that:

1. there was a procedure which set out an appropriate work method for the use of machinery with lifting forks or, specifically in relation to a task involving lifting a full 1,000L water tank;
2. workers had been appropriately trained in the use of lifting forks on machinery or, specifically in relation to a task involving lifting a full 1,000L water tank, and further, that there was a requirement for workers to be assessed as competent to perform such a task; and
3. workers conducted risk assessments in relation to the task involving lifting a full 1,000L water tank.

The defendant’s failures to do those things exposed workers to an unacceptable level of risk, and on 28 August 2023, those failures caused grievous bodily harm to a worker at a quarry, who was seriously injured (his hand was seriously injured) while performing a task involving lifting a full 1,000L water tank using machinery with lifting forks.

The defendant’s failures occurred in circumstances where he was the site senior executive (the most senior employee located at a mine) for the quarry where the offending occurred.

Magistrate Maloney took into account:

• the facts of the matter;
• the impact statement submitted by the injured worker which outlined the physical, mental and social impacts (upon his family) suffered by the injured worker;
• penalties imposed in other prior cases involving the prosecution of site senior executive’s for similar sorts of offending which caused death or grievous bodily harm to workers; and
• the defendant’s early plea of guilty, his otherwise good character, significant post-offending steps taken to rectify his offending, and important social work that the defendant was doing within his local community.

Ultimately, Magistrate Maloney stated that the offending was a serious example of this sort of offending because the defendant’s failures were fundamental failures when one has regard to the role of a site senior executive at a mine. Magistrate Maloney fined the defendant $40,000. No conviction was recorded. The defendant was also ordered to pay $8,206.37 costs to Resources Safety and Health Queensland, $1,500 costs of court and a $101.40 filing fee for the filing of the complaint.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au