You Hired the Expert. Who Verified the Risk Assessment?
Expertise can be delegated. An officer’s responsibility to verify the system cannot.
Insights by Paul Chivers
Better questions create safer systems.
Practical thinking on work health and safety, officer due diligence, risk governance and how organisations learn. These articles connect research, legal developments and real-world experience with decisions leaders can act on.
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Current article
An Allegation. A Police Investigation. A Governance Decision.
Why criminal liability, organisational conduct and prevention operate under different thresholds.
Governance & due diligence
What officers, directors and senior leaders need to know about assurance, verification, contractor governance and changing WHS expectations.
The Shark Panic Paradox
What four evidence sets reveal about risk, response and reassurance after the 2026 NSW shark incidents.
ISO 45001 Is Changing. But Has Your System Ever Done What the Standard Already Requires?
Why the ISO 45001 revision should trigger a review of control effectiveness, not just another document update.
Your WHS Code Is No Longer Just Guidance. Can You Prove Your Controls Measure Up?
NSW approved Codes now operate as minimum performance standards, focusing attention on evidence that controls work.
What if the metrics you celebrate most are the ones telling you the least?
Why familiar injury statistics can create false confidence and what leaders should ask for instead.
When personal risk becomes a live event, what does due diligence really look like?
What a high-consequence live event reveals about preparation, verification and due diligence under pressure.
Navigating the Latest WHS, IR and Workers Compensation Reforms in NSW
A practical overview of significant NSW workplace reforms and their implications for proactive risk management.
Why Telling Contractors How to Work Could Cost You Millions
Why consultation and respect for expertise matter when organisations direct contractor work.
Ticked Every Box, Missed Every Risk: What Major Accidents Reveal About Audit Blind Spots
What major accident investigations reveal about audit blind spots, surface compliance and false assurance.
When Leadership Fails to Look: Lessons from the Gibson Judgment
What a New Zealand officer prosecution teaches leaders about inquiry, verification and operational visibility.
Comparing Apples with Apples: A Global Comparison of 'Duty of Care'.
How duty-of-care expectations compare across jurisdictions and what multinational organisations should notice.
Systems & controls
Moving beyond paperwork and blame to design controls that remain effective in complex, variable work.
When a Safety Concern Is Raised, Who Stops the Work?
A warning that enters a maintenance system but does not change the operating state is not yet protection.
A Practical Guide to Improving Systems Without Losing Accountability
How to strengthen systems while maintaining fair, meaningful individual accountability.
Human Error Isn’t the Cause, It’s the Clue. Why We Need to Redesign the Systems We Expect People to Operate
Why effective prevention begins by understanding and redesigning the conditions in which people work.
When the Systems Built to Protect Us Begin to Work Against Us
How safety systems accumulate complexity, drift away from work and begin to create the risks they were designed to control.
When Non-Compliance Makes Us Safer: What Aviation Teaches Us About Real-World Risk
What aviation teaches us about professional judgement, adaptation and real-world risk.
Safety Is Value: Why Settling for Low-Level Controls Must Become the Exception, Not the Rule
Why lower-level controls should be the exception rather than the organisational default.
Investigation & learning
Using disciplined inquiry, operational evidence and learning approaches to understand why outcomes make sense in context.
Just Because You're Compliant Doesn't Mean You're Safe
What the Greta coach rollover investigation reveals about compliance, missing risks and control effectiveness.
Accident Investigations Aren’t Broken. Our Assumptions About Them Are.
Evidence from aviation challenges simplistic claims about investigation methods and organisational learning.
The Climber Trusted the System. The System Failed Him.
A learning report on maintenance, verification, competence and governance failures behind a fatal fall.
What We Really Learned from the Titan Implosion
What the Titan investigation reveals about warning signs, governance and the normalisation of unacceptable risk.
Beyond Root Cause - Evolving Incident Investigation with Learning Teams
How learning teams can complement traditional root cause analysis and reveal how work is actually performed.
Could HBO’s The Rehearsal Have Pre-emptively Uncovered What Went Wrong with Flight 171?
What carefully rehearsed scenarios can teach leaders about discovering failure before a real emergency.
Are Your Safety Numbers Lying to You? The Hidden Cost of Production Pressure
The hidden cost of production pressure and the danger of relying on reassuring outcome measures.
Emerging & human risks
Critical thinking about AI, digital work, fatigue and the changing conditions that influence safe performance.
AI Is Changing the Work. Are Your Controls Keeping Up?
AI implementation redesigns work, requiring evidence that the redesigned work remains safe in practice.
3 risks that keep CEO of Open AI up at night.
What three high-consequence AI risks teach leaders about intervention, uncertainty and control.
AI is now a Workplace Hazard!
What NSW digital work reforms mean for leaders, WHS professionals and algorithmic work design.
Sleepless on the Job: The Hidden Costs of Fatigue in the Workplace
The hidden organisational costs of fatigue, irregular work patterns and inadequate recovery.
The Importance of Critical Thinking and the Challenges Posed by AI and ChatGPT
Why judgement, scrutiny and human reasoning become more important as AI tools become commonplace.
From Cars to Planes: Are Airbags the Next Big Thing in Air Travel Safety?
Whether airbag restraint technology could reduce serious injuries during severe turbulence.
COVID-19 Causal opacity
Why delayed and uncertain feedback makes infection prevention a difficult risk-control problem.
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