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PREVENTING Every year thousands of people are injured in the workplace during machinery maintenance. Many of these injuries could have been avoided with an effective lockout-tagout system (LOTO). LOTO involves a combined locking and tagging system to prevent heavy machinery that is undergoing maintenance or servicing from being started and potentially exposing workers to danger. The SafeSite Program by Mayo Hardware delivers customised, site-specific LOTO solutions to the mining, power, manufacturing, utilities, transport and oil and gas industries. The SafeSite Program includes the following: site assessments and LOTO workshops; Master Lock safety padlocks and lockout accessories; custom key systems; LOTO procedure review and development; a broad range of plant identification solutions; and ongoing ‘health checks’ after LOTO implementation. To learn more about the SafeSite Program by Mayo Hardware and to arrange a review of your LOTO requirements, contact Mayo Hardware on 1300 360 211 or visit safesite.com.au
NUCLEAR DEBATE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA The business community in South Australia is pushing the government to capitalise on the state’s rich uranium reserves and consider nuclear power as a possible solution to rising energy prices and global warming. Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) state secretary Peter Malinauskas recently added his voice to the Business SA campaign and spoke out against the government’s stance on developing a nuclear industry in South Australia. “I believe climate change is a real challenge that we need to face up to, and nuclear energy can be a safe source of base load power, with zero carbon emissions,’’ he told local paper The Advertiser.
see the importance of at least investigating the possibility. “For electricity prices across the state, which are so high, we ought to at least invest in finding out whether in the long term our power issues and energy security, as a state, are going to improve and be more affordable long term by investigating nuclear power,’’ the spokesman said.
THE END OF COAL SEAM GAS?
“Thus, I find it contradictory and irresponsible when I see the Greens and environmentalists outright opposing nuclear power. We should have a mature debate based on science and economics to determine if a nuclear industry is viable in South Australia.’’ It’s not just the Greens who oppose the move; the Labor party recently affirmed its opposition to a nuclear power plant and waste storage facility in the state, and the Liberals said there is “no support for any progression of this industry”. Business SA wishes to reopen the debate, and the Family First party seems to agree, with a spokesman telling The Advertiser that while they don’t currently support the development of nuclear power, they can
In a huge blow to the coal seam gas (CSG) industry, an investigation by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) into a project by Santos near Narrabri in northern New South Wales found that a nearby aquifer had been contaminated, with uranium levels measured at 20 times those deemed safe for drinking water. Santos was fined $1500 – a trifling amount, which EPA chief environmental regulator Mark Gifford said ‘’reflects the level of environmental impact, which was small”. Local farmers aren’t quite so nonchalant about the finding and are demanding Santos be forced to pack up and leave the area. Beyond that, they wish to see the industry banned throughout Australia. “If this is the sort of damage that CSG activities cause in the early phases of exploration, then the amount of damage that would occur if Santos went to full production with 850 wells or more is unthinkable,” said Anne Kennedy, a farmer from Coonamble. “Two weeks ago, at Narrabri, over 600 people voted against CSG in the region and we’re calling on the National Party today to support that resolution and join with us to shut down CSG in north-west New South Wales,” she said in early March when local farmers travelled to Parliament House in Sydney to plead their case. New South Wales Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham agrees, saying that 3