FICA meets with the WorkSafe forestry inspectorate team every six weeks to discuss emerging industry issues, enforcement trends and areas of concern.
WorkSafe completed 526 forestry assessments during 2025/26, with 25% resulting in enforcement action and a total of 207 enforcement measures issued.
The key enforcement areas were:
Mobile plant and vehicle safety (26%) including traffic management failures, rollover risks and unsafe machinery.
Hazardous substances (17%) including shortcomings in health monitoring, exposure monitoring and PPE management.
Falling objects (12%) including unsafe tree felling, unstable log stacks and chain-shot hazards.
Falls from height (6%), particularly in arboriculture and maintenance activities.
Most notably, 39% of all enforcement measures were system-related, covering weaknesses in risk management, training, supervision, emergency preparedness, contractor management and regulatory compliance.
WorkSafe is placing as much emphasis on the quality of a business's health and safety systems as it is on site-specific hazards. Strong planning, competent supervision and effective risk management remain critical.
WorkSafe has also confirmed it is implementing a process to capture Safetree Certification information during assessment activities, reflecting the increasing importance of recognised competency standards across the sector.
FICA values these regular discussions with WorkSafe and encourages contractors to view them as a two-way conversation. If there are issues, concerns, questions, or messages that members would like raised with WorkSafe, FICA is happy to do so on your behalf. Please contact Rowan.
