The Agsafe Stewardship Conference and Awards are being held this year at Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast from 25–27 July.
Attendees will experience two days of conference activities, including a gala dinner and awards evening on Wednesday 26 July.
The conference delegates will hear from guest speakers, including futurist Gihan Perera, author of ‘Disrupted – Leading the charge through crisis, recovery and growth’. Mr Perera will present his keynote presentation: Fit for the Future.
In this engaging, inspiring, and entertaining presentation, he will explore the biggest trends shaping our future, understand the skills and mindset we most need now, and learn how to thrive in a fast-changing world.
Author and educator James Kennedy will deliver his popular presentation, Fighting Chemophobia – The story of how we became afraid of chemicals and what to do about it.
Chemophobia is an irrational fear of chemicals. Since the early 1990s, advances in toxicology have allowed scientists to detect traces of adulterant substances in everyday products – even down to parts per billion concentrations.
Toxicological research has shown most of these substances are in such low doses that they pose zero threat to our health. Nonetheless, people get scared. We overreact to harmless, negligible sources of contamination and buy ‘natural’, ‘organic’ and ‘chemical-free’ alternative products at elevated prices because we’re psychologically pre-disposed to think they’re safer.
Our products are safer than ever, yet people are becoming more scared. A very well-regarded presentation and apt for the agvet chemical industry.
During the conference a sustainability panel discussion will be held to discuss: Changing your World – Safety, Sustainability, Environment and Community. The panel will be made up by experts from various sectors within the industry, including environmental, government departments, corporate sustainability, and waste organisations.
The aim of this panel is to present different perspectives, construct and deconstruct ideas, with relevance on how the AgVet chemical industry impacts the safety of people, transportation, storage, waste disposal, community, and the environment.
There will be another regulator panel discussion on Thursday 27 July with panel members coming from various regulatory bodies including SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Queensland Government – Office of IR, and the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
This panel will discuss various issues in relation to the safe transport, storage and handling of agvet chemical throughout the supply chain.
Debra Kirk, manager legislative reform at the National Transport Commission, will update delegates with the changes in the ADG Code 7.8, released on 1 April 2023, and further changes that will affect our members.
Ms Kirk’s presentation will provide a general update on progress of the comprehensive review of the ADG Code. This will include an overview of consultation papers released so far and a summary of the submissions received. She will also look at specific issues that have the potential for impact on the Agsafe community, particularly:
• Emergency Information Panels (EIPs) on IBCs
• Deletion of, or substantial amendment to AU01
• Understanding the potential impacts
• Potential options to minimise the impacts.
Ms Kirk is a highly motivated and experienced professional with a passion for improving processes, safety outcomes and administration of compliance and legislative requirements related to high-risk occupational activities, particularly those related to dangerous goods.
During the Gala Dinner, six awards will be presented. These awards cover: Outstanding Premises Exhibiting Safety and Stewardship; Team Member Exhibiting Safety and Stewardship; drumMUSTER Collection Facility of the Year; drumMUSTER Community Group of the Year; as well as Chairman’s Awards; and a Lifetime Achievement Award. There are some very deserving finalists in this year’s awards, and we wish all entries the best of luck.
Further information can be found at the Agsafe Stewardship Conference website at www.conference.agsafe.org.au or by contacting Agsafe on (02) 6206 6888.
