Health and Safety Conversations

Today’s guest is Susan Fleming, Managing Director of ACT Australia, a company that’s changing how we learn about safety and leadership through powerful storytelling and live performance. From programs like Hindsight to The Slip, Susan’s work turns real experiences into lessons that help teams lead, reflect, and make safer decisions.   Book here: https://linktr.ee/actaustralia    

Dr Drew Rae is an Associate Professor in the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University, where he teaches courses on research methods and safety engineering, and manages the lab’s research program. Drew’s own research uses a mix of ethnography, field experiments and theory-building to investigate organisational safety practices. He is particularly interested in understanding the myths, rituals and bad habits that surround the work of managers and safety practitioners, and how this work influences front-line operations. Drew co-hosts the Safety of Work podcast and is on the editorial board of the journal Safety Science.

I consider myself extremely blessed to have had a chat to one of my safety heroes, Dr Sean Brady. Dr Sean Brady is a forensic engineer who investigates engineering failures from a technical and organisational perspective. In 2020, he completed the Brady Review, an investigation into the causes of fatalities in the Queensland mining industry. The review was tabled in parliament and made 11 recommendations to the regulator and mining companies on how to improve safety. In 2024, he completed the technical and organisational investigation into the catastrophic failure of a turbine generator at Callide C Power Station in Queensland, Australia. He also speaks, writes and podcasts on the causes of technical and organisational failure.    

Nathalie Martinek, PhD, helps people build relational leadership capacity and cultivate effective relationships in professional life, while also supporting those who’ve been scapegoated, sidelined, or harmed in environments that protect image over people. As a coach, she works with professionals to shift unhelpful relational patterns and navigate subtle power dynamics. As a group facilitator, she creates spaces for learning, applied reflection, and restoration. As a consultant, she helps individuals make sense of workplace dysfunction and emerge intact, with insight into the system and how to move forward. Her approach draws on years of practice inside and alongside institutions, informed by an early career in developmental biology and cancer research, where she studied how environments shape behavior and how systems enable dysfunction. Nathalie writes and teaches on scapegoating, narcissistic systems, relational leadership, and the emotional forces that shape them. She is the author of The Little Book of Assertiveness, The Scapegoating Playbook at Work, and creator of Hacking Narcissism on Substack.

In this episode Marc and I discuss some of the challenges around trainer PD in the VET sector.    Marc Miles is a career presenter and trainer. He has written a book on Advanced Facilitation Skills, and for over a decade, has taught public speaking skills, and content from the Training and Education Training Package for Australian Vocational Education and Training. During his time in the Vocational Education and Training sector, Marc has taught the TAE package over 500 times to people all around Australia in various industries. He has a been an instructional designer, training manager, and currently works as a senior facilitator for Spec Training. Marc’s students know him as a dynamic and engaging facilitator in both the face-to-face and online environments, believing he has set a new standard for how online delivery can be done. Marc’s book, Creating Transformation: Advanced Training Skills for Workshop Facilitators, was published in 2024.  Marc has a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics, Natural language processing certifications, and has conducted numerous professional development workshops for various audiences across Vocation Education and Training, corporate and entrepreneurial sectors.

Amanda Amaral is a safety professional turned entrepreneur, with over a decade of experience in high-risk industries including Oil & Gas, Maritime, and Transport & Logistics. Throughout her career, she worked hands-on at the frontline, from offshore seismic vessels to logistics hubs, helping organisations reduce risk, improve training, and engage their people in safety outcomes.   In 2025, she co-founded GotSafe Media, a company dedicated to transforming workplace health and safety communications into something that actually connects with people on site. Through innovative videos, tailored safety packs, and leadership messaging, Amanda helps businesses shift safety from a compliance checkbox into a culture of ownership and care. As both a safety communicator and a mum, Amanda brings a deeply human perspective to how safety messages are delivered, ensuring they resonate across every level of the workforce.

Sarah Barnbrook is an award-winning advocate, international speaker, and best-selling author who is passionate about preventing harm in the digital world. She is the Founder of Away From Keyboard (AFK) Inc., a charity that delivers workshops, personalised support, and peer group sessions to help families and communities build safer online experiences. AFK’s work goes beyond advocacy, with Sarah leading policy submissions, government reporting, and initiatives that influence safety frameworks globally. As an accredited United Nations delegate, Sarah has represented civil society at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, observed the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and attended the Human Rights Council in Geneva. She is also Chief Revenue Officer of Women 4 STEM, where she focuses on creating opportunities for women and girls across the STEM pipeline. Her advocacy is deeply shaped by her lived experience, fuelling a mission to create systemic change. Sarah has spoken at global summits and events, including Geneva Peace Week, delivering thought leadership on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, AI ethics, and digital wellbeing. Her work has been recognised with numerous awards, including Global Volunteer of the Year and Youth Impact Awards, and she has been a finalist in the Women in AI APAC Awards and Australian Women in Security Awards.

Truly honoured to have Sally North grace our podcast, and our home. Unprecedented.  Sally North is the WorkSafe Commissioner in Western Australia, having acted in the role for about a year before being formally appointed in July 2024. In this role she is the work health and safety regulator for the resources and general industries sectors. Commencing as an inspector, Sally has over twenty years’ experience at WorkSafe in operational and leadership roles and previously worked in the private sector in occupational health and safety.

Michelle is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist and works for FIFO Focus and PerMentis. She has experience in mental health assessment and treatment, psychosocial risk management, trauma-informed care auditing and training, recruitment and selection and psychometric assessment, in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. In recent years, Michelle has worked alongside mining organisations to support psychosocial hazard risk management. She has supported individuals and consulted to organisations whose frontline workers were exposed to trauma, stress and high cognitive and emotional demands. She has also worked in partnership with other not-for-profit organisations to provide support in prisons, family and domestic violence refuges, and homelessness services. Michelle has trained workers across government, mining and community services with the skills necessary to provide emotional support and suicide intervention, emphasising the importance of trauma-informed care. Michelle is the current President of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology Australia (SIOPA), and has served as a committee and/or board member since its foundation in 2016. She believes in the advancement of the Organisational Psychology profession, and in protecting the integrity of the profession. As a Psychology Board Approved Supervisor, Michelle also  appreciates the opportunity to support the growth and learning of students and psychologists, and intends to be an active advocate on behalf of her peers and the wider profession for years to come!

Sandra Lam is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist and the Managing Director of FIFO Focus and Permentis. With over two decades of experience across public and private sectors in Australia and internationally, Sandra is recognised for her expertise in psychosocial risk, organisational wellbeing, and shaping positive workplace cultures. Through FIFO Focus, she works closely with the mining and remote workforce sectors, providing psychosocial risk management training and services, trauma-informed practices including in psychosocial investigations, mental health training, resilience-building programs, and FIFO life preparation. As Managing Director of Permentis, Sandra leads projects across justice, utilities, defence, government, and international development, designing and implementing systemic, human-centred solutions to improve performance, engagement, and psychosocial safety. Sandra’s career has taken her to Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and South America, often working in high-risk or high-impact environments. She holds a Master’s in Organisational Psychology and an MBA, and is a Fellow of the College of Organisational Psychologists. I also consider Sandra to be one of those rare people who is not only a friend but someone who will tell you the truth when you need to hear it.