The company is a joint venture between Wesfarmers Limited (40 per cent) and Air Liquide Australia Limited (60 per cent). We employ approximately 72 people and have a network of 60 agents.

The major focus for our business is the continued safe production and distribution of industrial, medical and speciality gases. A by-product from our acetylene manufacturing process is lime. The on-going environmental management of this lime waste at the Henderson site continues through the lime being regularly collected by a licensed contractor for re-use in a manufacturing process.

We have maintained a no lost time injury (LTI) record for three consecutive years. The company focuses on workplace observations and incident investigations to reduce risk and prevent lost time injuries. In addition, all our operational sites are conducting regular health and safety meetings to foster positive safety performance.

One of our priorities was to improve our Bunbury depot cylinder storage facility and this priority has been achieved to reduce the manual handling risk to operational personnel.

The air separation plant dedicated to HIsmelt in Kwinana was placed on care and maintenance mid year.

Training on our Emergency Management Plan has continued over the period with a simulated exercise held in June 2009 to test the plan and team response. A scenario of a forklift impacting our acetylene filling station setting off a fire with multiple injuries was managed well by the Emergency Management Team. Alternate team members were involved to ensure back up personnel are trained and competent in the various emergency response roles.

Regular employee engagement has been fostered through site health and safety meetings as well as a series of programmes implemented on developing our people. These programmes include improving our safety culture, developing training plans that identify position competencies and ensuring our people are protected through the correct equipment being available and used.

Behavioural safety visits (BSV) on our operational employees have been implemented to highlight safe behaviour and identify gaps between standards and actual practice in the field. The goal of a BSV is to directly engage each employee in safety improvement through practice, listening and exchange. BSV fundamentals are that a supervisor or site manager visits an employee’s post and attentively observes his or her work method for a few minutes, then starts a conversation with the employee.

The goal is to analyse the employee’s behaviour and actions, detect good practices and risky behaviours. The ensuing conversation allows the manager and employee to identify any possible points of improvement, decide upon any immediate, concrete steps to develop safer behaviour, and also, if relevant, to reflect on possible long-term measures to take.

The increase is largely due to the inclusion of steam from HIsmelt.

Governance

We are not aware of any licence condition non-compliance or potential non-compliance during the year. Emissions notifiable under the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) were estimated for acetone. Data for the 2007/8 reporting period was submitted to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Detailed information is available at: www.npi.gov.au. Our substance emission for last year was ranked by the NPI as low.

Community support

We have made a number of sponsorships and donations to charities and community groups. Sponsorship of a World Vision child from Bangladesh has continued. Senior management are available to respond to any complaint from the community.

• Zero lost time injuries.
• Medical treatment cases to be monitored
• Behavioural Safety Visits to be conducted across operational facilities
• Emergency Management Plan training to be conducted
• Quality products and services to be supplied to our customers
• Workplace Safety Observation programme to continue

Emergency Exercise

We conducted an Emergency Exercise during the year, as part of our commitment to safety, to test our Emergency Management Plan and assess management response to an emergency event.

The scenario was based on a Process Operator who had driven into the Henderson acetylene filling station impacting manifolded flammable gaseous plant thus setting off a significant fire. An evacuation occurred with three persons unaccounted for after the employee roll was called. Site management has lost operational control and supply issues were involved due to the destruction of plant. Influenza A (H1N1) was later found to be a root cause of the Operator collapsing but not the prime management focus in ensuring the safety of personnel, restoring operational control and continuity of supply.

Role players included next of kin, the police and media personnel. Our Emergency Management Team and their alternates worked efficiently to protect staff, ensure the welfare of those injured, communicate with stakeholders including next of kin, organise alternate supplies, bring the event under control and minimise the impact on the company’s reputation. A job well done that hopefully will not be put to the real test!