April 2002 Volume 83 Number 4 "serving the protectors"

Brew your own

Dear Andy

As an avid home-brewer for the past two years, I am amazed how many members are home-brewers. Home-brewing is really easy, and whatever style of beer you drink today can be made with a home-brew kit for much cheaper.

For example, home-brew ingredients cost about $20 (or less), and one can make approximately 60 stubbies or 30 longnecks. A variety of other alcoholic drinks can be made besides beer.

A group of us home-brewers have got together and are contemplating starting a home-brewing club called The Thin Brew Line. Depending on how many people are interested in joining, some of our future activities might include (but not be limited to):

• Tours of various breweries (Coopers, Grumpys, etc).

• Homebrew tastings.

• Ability to buy ingredients/equipment in bulk for better cost savings.

• T-shirts/caps for members.

• Homebrew competitions (with prizes).

• Demonstrations for new home-brewers, including tips and advice.

• Extensive recipe and experience base.

A venue has been tentatively organized for meetings/get-togethers (special arrangements could be made for country members). Anyone interested in joining The Thin Brew Line should contact Michael Everitt (8204 2865), Wolf Koenig (8463 7666) or Colin Gibbs (8463 7667).
Regards
Michael Everitt

Aghast over suspended sentence

Sir

Some months ago, it appeared in the media that a superintendent of police was assaulted by a member of a bikie gang at the country town of Beachport. The superintendent was reported to have suffered a broken jaw. I think other members of the force were injured in the resulting melee.

Last Friday, I think, it appeared in The Advertiser that the offending bikie was given a suspended sentence allegedly because he apologized for his action and “appeared genuinely sorry” for his actions on the occasion of the assault.

Surely I could be excused for thinking that something is seriously wrong with this sentence having regard to the circumstances which led to the charges being laid. One doesn’t have to be too bright to recognize that when a superintendent has to lead a contingent of police to a remote country town where a group of bikie gang members have stopped, all present, including residents in the township and environs, realized that serious danger was imminent.

As we know now, a serious breach of the peace took place when these bikies tried to impose mob rule over the police present. I am aware that the assault on the superintendent was so severe that he sustained a broken jaw. I believe other members were also assaulted in the fracas that followed.

I was aghast when I read of the penalty recently imposed by the court. I would think that residents of and visitors at that time to Beachport would be horrified to learn of such a weak result when members had travelled so far, in an emergency situation, to protect them.
Yours sincerely
Noel Jub

Workplace health and safety

Dear Andy

The body charged with overseeing the state’s Occupational Health & Safety, and Rehabilitation & Compensation schemes has published the WorkCover Corp 2000-2001 Statistical Review. The report contains a large body of data in the form of graphs and tables, which should interest police managers and health and safety reps.

The document reads: “The Statistical Review provides an overview of the extent, cost and type of workplace claims to Scheme Stakeholders to create a greater awareness of workplace issues and allow for the identification and prioritisation of preventative activities.”

The police occupation featured prominently in a number of categories of the review. Male police officers now top the list of occupations listed with the greatest number of total claims for the reporting period 1999–2000. That is up from second place in the previous review. Female police officers made the top-10 list in this review.

It’s heartening to see that, for those claims that resulted in lost time, greater than 10 days, male police officers improved marginally from third to fourth, but still managed to increase the average cost of such claims from $16,425 (1998–1999) to $25,377 (1999–2000).

The injuries or diseases responsible for most of these claims, not surprisingly, are, for males: contusions (top of the list), sprains and strains (third), open wounds (top), and mental disorders (top). In comparison with the previous review, this represents a rise in all categories other than open-wound, where it maintained the top occupation. Interestingly, women police officers do not feature in any of the injury categories for either review.

Mental disorder (stress) is by far the most costly claim, owing largely to the time over which the claim remains active. The average claim for police officers in this category was $18,558 (1999-2000). The number of claims for this injury jumped to 44 in this review period, up from 25 in the previous year.

In its statistical reviews, WorkCover Corp has only recently reported on workplace violence. In this category, policing as an occupation does not feature in this or past reports. Another surprise in this category is the injury that is most common and most costly – mental disorder. To understand this better, it is useful to know that the definition of workplace violence incorporates bullying at work.

Being harassed at work will result in increased stress, and this perhaps accounts for the extraordinarily high number of these mental disorder claims by police officers in this report. One can only surmise that, if properly reported, many of these claims might instead show up as workplace violence.

Upon analyzing the data in this most recent review, my conclusion is that there is still much to do in making a safer workplace for police, while they lead the way to a safer community.
Peter Schulze
Workplace Health & Safety Representative
South Coast LSA,
Vice-President
PASA Metro South Branch

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