In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss why effective due diligence arguments need to be relevant, reasoned, and concise. 

They share their frustrations with overly complex safety documentation that fails to deliver clear, defensible arguments, and explain why safety cases should be brief yet comprehensive enough to stand up to legal scrutiny. 

Drawing from their extensive experience as expert witnesses and consultants, they offer practical advice on creating effective safety documentation that not only satisfies the courts and makes sense to lawyers and Boards, but actually improves safety outcomes at optimal cost.

The episode starts with them explaining (following a question from their producer) how safety approaches shifted from target-based risk assessments to the SFAIRP (So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable) principles with the OHS Act in Victoria, and why it was necessary.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this episode, of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis revisit the distinction between SFAIRP (So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable) and Target Levels of Risk and Safety.  

They explain how target levels of risk continue to be problematic in engineering despite being legally unsupportable under WHS/OHS legislation and share examples of regulators and engineers still using outdated approaches and discuss why this confusion persists, pointing to issues with Standards and educational institutions that continue teaching these methods.

They clarify that SFAIRP asks "Are all reasonable practical precautions in place?" while target based approaches rely solely on calculated risk levels. Through real-world examples including expert witness cases and engineering consultations, they demonstrate how the SFAIRP approach leads to better safety outcomes and alignment between stakeholders and warn engineers and organisations still using target levels of risk for safety issues.

This conversation follows their original discussion in Season 1 Episode 1: SFAIRP vs ALARP (listen at https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/2180928/episodes/13021822-sfairp-vs-alarp-risk-engineers-talk-governance-podcast)

While the table they refer to is available in their Criminal Manslaughter – How Not To Do It booklet, available online at https://www.r2a.com.au/store/p/r2a-criminal-manslaughter-directors-booklet

Richard and Gaye also run public and in-house workshops on the topic.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineering experts Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss why Standards are not the solution.  

They explore why following Standards can be problematic, outlining key issues: 

1.     Using Standards out of context;

2.     There’s no explanation for rationales;

3.     They don’t cover all things; and

4.     They are often lagging indicators.

They share a number of examples within SIL, AS1940 and AS61508 that demonstrate the issues if you do blindly follow the Standard. 

The episode concludes with their answer to an often asked question: If you don't design to Standards, how do Engineers design? 

The text they mention is Engineering Due Diligence (Concepts, Applications, Tools & Techniques) that can be purchased online at https://www.r2a.com.au/store/p/r2a-engineering-due-diligence-textbook  

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this episode of "Risk! Engineers Talk Governance," due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Insurance Criteria and its history and modern relevance, particularly focusing on the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) engineering process.

Richard shares his experience training with Factory Mutual in the US and explains how the HPR approach originated in the 1840s with Zacharia Allen, a cotton mill owner who re-engineered his facility to minimise fire risks. When his insurance company refused to offer discounts for these improvements, Allen created a mutual pool with other safety-conscious factory owners, establishing an engineering-based approach to insurance rather than a purely financial one.

The conversation explores key concepts like Normal Loss Expectancy versus Maximum Foreseeable Loss, highlights common design flaws in Australian Standards, and emphasises that engineers must think beyond merely following standards to truly understand what they're trying to protect. The episode concludes with takeaways about designing for specific needs rather than blindly applying Standards.

This conversation follows the R2A text Engineer Due Diligence (Concepts, Applications, Tools & Techniques) that can be purchased online at https://www.r2a.com.au/store/p/r2a-engineering-due-diligence-textbook.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss: How to prevent catastrophic project blowouts.

They discuss the three key considerations when undertaking project due diligence and preventing catastrophic project blowouts as:

1. Ensure your scope is right, have identified your critical success outcomes are and all key stakeholders understand what the prize is and agree.
   
   
2. Undertake a completeness check of threats. Project due diligence is not a risk assessment, it’s about controls, and putting in controls to protect against threats. 
    
3. Review the project on a regular basis and at key milestones. If there are any scope changes being proposed, you need to question what it will actually do to your project and where it’s at now. Redefine the project scope, as appropriate, but ensure changes are communicated transparently and clearly.

This discussion follows R2A’s booklet: How To Prevent Catastrophic Project Blowouts (A Practical Guide for Directors). You can purchase online at https://www.r2a.com.au/store/p/project-governance-booklet-directors

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis this season’s theme of "Difficult Conversations Engineers Need to Have About Risk". 

Key discussion points include:

• Risk is multidimensional. 
• Risk covers a big domain that has lead to confusion.
• There are three different types of risk, but R2A’s focus is typically on safety risk and project risk – downside risk.
• Commercial industry like to focus on upside, downside risk (risk and reward, risk appetite and innovation), but Engineers should focus on downside risk.
• Innovation and Risk Management is good but not at the expense of zero harm and the WHS/OHS legislation.
• Often innovation is the solution to the problem but cannot compromise safety.
• Innovation cannot be encouraged as the focus of Risk Management.
• Safety risk shouldn’t been seen as an obstruction; safety is non-negotiable.
• Don't just choose one technique because if you do, and particularly if you ignore the WHS legislation requirements, you're going to set yourself up for a pretty serious fall. 

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

 Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In this first episode of Season 5 of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis provide an overview of their new booklet "Risk Management and Negligence - Due Diligence Essentials for Engineers". 

They discuss the importance of engineers to understand their responsibilities around risk management and due diligence, and the need to communicate this effectively to senior decision-makers. 

The booklet covers:

• You can’t always be right but you can be diligent
• What it means to be an engineer today
• The risk management swamp
• Methods to drain the swamp
• Due diligence domains

They also discuss this season’s theme of difficult conversations engineers need to have and their plans for an in-person event to further discuss this topic.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

To purchase the new booklet, head to https://www.r2a.com.au/store/p/due-diligence-essentials-engineers-booklet

All other books are available at https://www.r2a.com.au/store

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au

In the final episode of Season 4 of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis wrap up the key theme of the season of due diligence as a governance process. They also provide another industry example in Dam Safety, and discuss the relevance of WHS/OHS legislation and the state of prosecutions.

Key take-aways include:

•  The due diligence process is a governance process that focuses on high consequence, low likelihood events rather than risk management.
• Dam safety highlights how regulators focus on the worst-case scenario of a dam failure rather than likelihood.
• The due diligence process involves four key tasks: completeness checks, identifying critical issues, determining reasonable controls, and implementing a quality assurance system. 
• WHS/OHS legislations must be integrated across safety decisions. 
• WHS prosecutions seem to be more prevalent in jurisdictions where it’s been in place a while, with regulators more likely to prosecute smaller to medium-sized organisations due to the increased likelihood of winning.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au 

Look out for Season 5 coming soon!

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss due diligence for bushfires.

Richard has been involved in advising on bushfire risk and controls since Ash Wednesday in 1984, while both Richard and Gaye as R2A were involved with bushfire assessments post Black Saturday in 2009.  

Their discussion highlights:

• Bushfire season is getting longer, and the ability to prepare for it is getting shorter. Volunteer firefighters are also declining.
• Bushfire best practice for local planning for protection has adopted a vulnerability approach – criticality rather than likelihood.
• From a due diligence viewpoint, we know we cannot stop bushfires. But, what are all the controls that we can put in place?  
• Often it's not the threat of the bushfire itself, but the interaction of a community or people with the bushfire – the vulnerability of peri-urban areas.
• Building codes have been updated to improve bushfire resistance, but challenges remain around prescribed burning and access of remote areas during fires.
• Prepare your property, but be ready to evacuate early on high-risk days, as access can quickly become blocked.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss due diligence in the electrical and power industry.

They discuss due diligence and risk management considerations in the sector, with examples that focus on renewable energy sources like wind turbines and the potential role of nuclear power in Australia's energy mix. Key points include:

• The need to carefully assess and document the safety and emergency protocols even for foreseeable events like fires.
• The trade-offs involved in designing effective systems which can sometimes introduce new risks.
• The challenges of transitioning to a more distributed, renewable-heavy electrical grid, including the need for reliable baseload power and the shifting seasonal demand patterns in Australia.
• The thorough, "cradle-to-grave" approach taken by Finland in developing nuclear power, which may serve as a model for Australia.
• The difficulty of developing a coherent, long-term national energy policy due to the political complexities involved.

Find out more about Richard and Gaye’s consulting work at https://www.r2a.com.au.

The full episode on Nuclear Power is Episode 9, Season 2 of this podcast.