New rural safety campaign

With eight workplace fatalities recorded on Victorian farms already this year, Victorian WorkCover Minister Rob Hulls has launched a TV campaign that urges farmers to be as passionate about farm safety as they are about country football.

Hulls said the campaign, which runs on regional TV from Thursday night, took advantage of WorkSafe Victoria's naming rights sponsorship of the Victorian Country Football League - and was a light-hearted way to get a serious message across. "The WorkSafe Victoria campaign features two advertisements that blend our love of footy with the need for farm safety," Mr Hulls said. "In the first ad, a father arrives home on his tractor to join in a game of footy with his two sons. And in the second ad a woman gets a fright when she hears her husband scream - but he's not hurt, he's screaming at a footy telecast on the shed radio." Hulls said he was concerned that the safety message was still not getting through to the farming community and it was crucial to use new ways of getting the safety messages across.

"The death toll on our farms is horrific this year. We are not halfway through the year and we have already equalled last year's death toll, with eight people killed in the agriculture sector," he said. "At this rate we could be see workplace fatalities on our farms double this year - and that is unacceptable. The message we need to get out is that people should be as passionate about farm safety as they are about regional footy. "Farm safety, just like footy, is a team game. Rather than try to win the game on your own you're better off if you work with farm organisations such as the VFF and agencies like WorkSafe to ensure you have the best possible game plan."