In April we delivered another fantastic Health, Safety, Environment Representative (HSER) Forum in Darwin to a packed house of HSER’s keen to share, learn and network – but above all, to learn how they can improve safety outcomes for their teams.
Opened by event MC Tim Hall (HSER and Mechanical Fitter, Woodside), who opened the event by delivering a heartfelt, personal and stirring Acknowledgement of Country recognising the Larrakia people and their connection to land and water.
Jenna Frzop (Senior Health and Safety Advisor, INPEX) then gave the Opening Address to get the day kicked off. She shared the feedback from the 2025 event, which the HSER Project Team used to shape the Agenda for the 2026 Forum.
We then kicked off the 2026 Forum proper with a fun community icebreaker run by Daniella Antonucci (Health and Safety, Woodside). She started the room off with a fun task of sharing a favourite photo and recent song from our phone, and to discuss it with your table as a reminder why we all do what we do when it comes to frontline worker safety – we all want to get home to the things we love at the end of the shift.
Daniella then shifted to the serious/fun game of "Barrier Breakdown". This game cleverly walked participants through a process safety scenario using balloons to represent present - or failed - barriers. When a specific barrier is deemed to have failed that table's balloon is popped for dramatic effect.
HSER’s consistently provide feedback to us each year their desire to be up skilled to better face the challenges posed by the HSER role.
In response, in 2026, we were delighted to have Helen Reid (Safer Together Frontline Leadership Training Facilitator) with us to deliver a Frontline Leadership Training module session on "Communicating One to Many". Helen provided a masterclass for the HSERs in learning how to prepare and deliver an effective safety message to their teams. Each participant had the opportunity to practice preparing to deliver a Learning Event Bulletin Toolbox using Safer Together’s Delivering Safety Messages to Groups template, with a few brave souls sharing their process with the larger group.
Following a short break, Emma Gauld (HSEQ Manager, Monadelphous) facilitated a perennial Forum favourite “HSER Success Stories”. Communicating, disseminating and sharing lessons learned when we have incidents in our industry is important for identifying and mitigating risk factors. Equally, sharing stories of when things go well not only inspires others – it provides both the opportunity to improve workplace safety and to improve team culture for everyone in our industry. The HSER Success Stories template can be found on the Safer Together website and is designed to share and celebrate the improvements HSERs can make to safety on behalf of teams (with no win too small to celebrate!).
The Forum then turned its’ attention to the re-launch of the upgraded and refreshed HSER Resource File materials on the Safer Together website. The culmination of a huge project by the HSER Program team. Maddison Barton (Health, Safety & Environment Advisor, Cleanaway) shared a short video on where all the updated resources can be found on the Safer Together website and recognised the efforts of all involved. Maddison also shared how to register for the quarterly HSER Connect Bulletin (sign up here!).
Jenna returned to close out the day, share her reflections on the day, and thank all the speakers and HSERs for taking the time to engage so enthusiastically, saying:
“These forums continue to demonstrate the value of bringing together our network of passionate frontline HSE representatives, creating a platform to openly share successes and challenges, and ensuring frontline insights are heard by industry leaders to help focus efforts on remove barriers and continuing to raise the bar in HSE.”