THE Victorian Farmers Federation’s Making our Farms Safer project is appealing for farmer feedback to gauge the impact of its “Making our Farm Families Safer” campaign, which aims to improve the safety of children on farms.
VFF president Emma Germano urged farmers to complete a short, anonymous survey to inform future campaigns and help reduce tragedy from striking Victorian farming families.
“We’re asking farmers themselves to let us know what worked as part of the campaign and what they’d like to see in future to assist us in our commitment to improve safety outcomes for children on farms,” Ms Germano said.
“This campaign couldn’t be more important.
“Recent figures from Agrifutures Australia reported 55 deaths on farms nationwide in 2022, demonstrating we must continue to work towards keeping every family member and employee safe on our farms.”
The campaign, including the Child Safe on Farms handbook, was initiated in response to a coronial recommendation in 2021, following the death of seven children on farms between 2016 and 2021.
It launched during Farm Safety Week in July 2021 and was primarily aimed at providing information, tools and resources to those caring for children aged 10-15, who are performing farm work tasks.
Since launching, one campaign video featuring the head of trauma and burns at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Dr Warwick Teague, was viewed more than 55,000 times on YouTube and the guidebook has been downloaded more than 1000 times a month from the MOFS website.
“We know thousands of people viewed the campaign videos, read case studies and the guidebook. Now we’re asking farmers what they’d like to see in the future,” Ms Germano said.
The two-minute survey is at www.makingourfarmssafer.org.au and closes on May 23.
