Health and Safety Conversations

A regular part of the podcast Sarah brings us news of what's happening in New Zealand in terms of safety and social issues. Sarah is a Health and Safety specialist, Professional Member of NZ Institute of Safety Management (ProfNZISM), Health & Safety Australia New Zealand Registered (HASANZ) and ANZCAL (Australia and New Zealand Coaching Alliance) accredited trainer. Sarah is an experience health and safety professional with over two decades of experience. With an outgoing personality and an inclusive style of communication, clients have described Sarah as facilitative; however, she can also be direct and hold people accountable, while keeping a sense of humour. Sarah enjoys helping her clients define what their key health and safety challenges to develop solutions that are written in their language and work in their operational context.

Cathy Oddie worked for Centrelink for seven years, before moving on to work in the Superannuation and public mental health sectors. After her role as Business Development and Policy Coordinator at HESTA ended in 2019, Cathy embraced the opportunity to become Monash Health’s first ever Family Violence Lived Experience Consultant within their Mental Health Family Violence Project Team. She then went on to work in Emergency Service response at the Police Assistance Line. Cathy was employed for Berry Street in the roles of After Hours Specialist Family Violence Practitioner, Positive Shift Program Facilitator and Family Safety Contact Practitioner.   More recently, she has been the Intake and Client Engagement Practitioner at Bloom Well-being which is trauma specialist counselling service and a Senior Family Violence Practitioner with Goulburn’s Orange Door virtual team.    From 2007- 2022, Cathy was a volunteer Survivor Advocate with Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre. This role led Cathy to make a submission and give evidence at the 2015 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Her testimony resulted in two of the final 227 Recommendations, one of which led to the Review of the Victims of Crime Assistance Act which was tabled to Victorian Parliament in 2018. The dismantling of the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal and upcoming implementation of the new Financial Assistance Scheme is as a direct result of Cathy's evidence to the Royal Commission. Cathy made a submission and was called to give evidence to the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee: Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System in 2021. She has also been involved in numerous consultation and co-design processes on legislation and policy reforms including the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) Stalking Inquiry and VLRC Improving the Response of the Justice System to Sexual Offences Report.    Cathy was on the working group and co-evaluated the DHHS Pilot Project “Family Violence Survivor Employment Pathways Program” and was also on the expert reference group for WIRE’s “Teachable Moments” Research Project, which was a project which had a focus on financial abuse. In 2017, she was elected to the Committee of Management for Project Respect, which is an organisation which provides assistance and support to women experiencing exploitation, abuse or human trafficking in the sex industry. Cathy was also a Director on the board of Violence Free Families from 2021-2022. During her time at HESTA, she was successful in receiving a grant from Victorian Women’s Trust to improve the economic outcomes for women from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds through bringing together the organisations HESTA, ICAN, Fitted for Work and WAM to deliver a targeted financial literacy for women program using a narrative story-telling approach. In 2019, Cathy became the first official survivor ambassador for Mettle Women Inc. This is an organisation which provides safe and accessible employment and opportunities to women who have experienced family violence and homelessness to establish financial independence. In 2021-2022, Cathy facilitated Domestic Violence and Coercive Control Masterclasses around Australia. Also in 2021, she became a published author, having a chapter about her lived experience of family violence included in the short story compilation: “Love, Bruises and Bullsh!t”.    Cathy was appointed to the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety’s Victim of Crime Consultative Committee as a Victim Representative in 2020. In addition to this appointment, in 2020 she joined Victoria Legal Aid's "Specialist Family Violence Court Project" Steering Committee, and in 2021 the “Legal Services in The Orange Door Project” Project Control Group as a Family Violence Lived Experience Consultant. She was on the working group designing the new Victims Legal Service which commenced operation in March 2023. Between 2023-2024, Cathy was a member of the Expert Advisory Group for Transitioning Well's contract with the Federal Government and assisted in the co-production of a suite of resources to support small business to implement their legislative obligations to provide their employees with ten days of paid domestic and violence leave when required. Cathy was appointed to the Victims of Crime Commissioner's Lived Experience Experts' Network and to the Adult Parole Board as a Sessional Community Member in June 2024. She has recently commenced a role as a Peer Educator with Western Sydney Recovery College. Cathy is passionately committed to the healing, recovery and financial wellbeing of victim survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

The wonderful Marc Miles, the font of knowledge on all training and assessing matters in the vocational education and training sector helps disect the TAE qualification. An honest, sometimes brutally honest about whether the keystone qualification required for all trainers and assessors in the sector actually is fit for purpose.  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.

Dr. Megan Tranter is a recognized global voice in Health, Safety, and Environment leadership. She is among the few women who have held top EHS roles  at Amazon, PepsiCo, Novartis, and Netflix. Megan has extensive experience in global strategy development and implementation, risk management, cultural change, and Board and CEO-level engagement and coaching. Originally from Australia, Megan has had an impressive career spanning government, mining, and academia. As a former lecturer at Central Queensland University and the University of Western Sydney, Megan taught undergraduate and master’s students in Australia and Hong Kong. She then moved to corporate roles, starting at McDonald’s Australia and then at Coca-Cola Amatil. After relocating to the United States, her career took off as she built and led high-performing EHS and tech teams in global companies, achieving significant results.

Steve Hearsum has worked for over 20 years as an organisational consultant, coach and more recently supervisor. He has a keen interest in the human side of change, which in recent years that has grown into a fascination with how shame and anxiety drive behaviour in organisations, particularly at senior leadership levels. He supports and challenges clients to find their ‘edge and stretch’ when what they are after is more than simply ‘better sameness’, and has been described as ‘the right kind of fly in the ointment’. His work focuses on building change capability in three main ways. helping leaders develop their practice in terms of how they show up and the impact they have; working with internal and external consultants and organisational change practitioners of many a hue to develop their consulting skills; and culture work more generally. He published his first book, No Silver Bullet: Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix, in 2024, is a Council Member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and former Co-Chair of the OD Network Europe.

Darryl Johnson, Owner and Director of Mental Health Journey Australia, is a Registered Nurse with Post Graduate qualifications in Mental Health Nursing and Occupational Health and Safety. Additionally, he holds qualifications as a Trainer Assessor. With extensive experience spanning industries like manufacturing, the Australian Army, oil and gas, and mining, Darryl is a passionate advocate for workplace mental health. His belief in the power of education to break the cycle of mental health-related workplace issues drives his work, complemented by his current role as a mental health nurse at Royal Perth Hospital

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

Joining us today are two passionate leaders in safety coaching, Ian Collins and David Wollage. Ian is a dedicated advocate for workplace wellbeing and human performance, with a strong presence in the safety coaching space. He has founded three companies - Safety Coach International, Wellbeing Daily and How2HOP. David, is a seasoned professional in safety leadership, brings years of hands-on experience in creating safer, more effective workplaces.   Together, they are spearheading the Safety Coaching Foundational Workshop, happening in Perth this May. This workshop is designed to transform how safety is approached, shifting from compliance-driven models to a more human-centered, coaching-based approach. If you're looking to elevate safety culture in your workplace, this is the event to be at. Welcome, Ian and David!   You can find out more about this topic here: https://www.newviewsafetycoach.com.au/foundationcourse

Sarah Thomas joines us to talk about issues in New Zealand at the moment. We touch on safety, politics, road cones, and so much more. Sarah is a Health and Safety Professional with over 2 decades of experience. She also delivers Crisis Leadership Training.  Sarah has always been into the outdoors and once claimed to be a travel addict fuelled by caffeine. Today the caffeine addiction still stands although her knees won’t let her be as adventurous as she once was. ⁠ At the turn of the century  she travelled the worldas a professional ski patroller and outdoor instructor before beginning her work in health and safety at Tranz Rail in 2002. Like many people who are now in senior technical positions she is very glad that there was no Facebook before 2004. ⁠ Today she and her family are based and Cromwell. Her husband Goeff is a cadastral surveyor, and their son Ollie has inherited his parents love ofthe outdoors. On the weekends team Thomas along with their Cairn terrier Tussock can be found in the outdoors enjoying all that Central Otago has to offer. In the summer, they enjoy hiking, kayaking, and mountain biking, while in the winter, they focus on skiing and snowboarding.   To contact Sarah follow these links: www.easinz.co.nz https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahthomaseasinz/

Tanya Hallett - Lego Serious Play In this episode  Tanya Hallett dives into the transformative world of LEGO Serious Play. Discover how this innovative approach, once seen as child’s play, has become a powerful tool for team building, strategy planning, and fostering psychological safety. Tanya shares heartfelt stories from workshops, including profound moments of self-discovery and unique builds that unveil untold emotions and perspectives. Whether you’re curious about using play to tackle workplace challenges, exploring strategies for mental health and trauma-informed practices, or just love a good story about the unexpected depth of LEGO, this episode has something for everyone. 🎧 Tune in now to learn how “thinking with your hands” can reshape workplaces and deepen team connections. Don’t miss this engaging conversation—it might just inspire you to pick up a LEGO brick and build something extraordinary!