Nina Hoang: No, it’s a main topic.

Andrew Douglas: Can we do the main topic? I was interested in doing the case study.

Nina Hoang: The main topic is quick anyway. The New South Wales-

Andrew Douglas: I’ll tell you, the head of production is laughing. That’s not her job, her job is here to do videography. I can’t believe she’s doing that.

Nina Hoang: So we should have like a laughing track in the background. So the New South Wales bullying regime has been passed.

Andrew Douglas: This isn’t part of the case study, is it?

Nina Hoang: No and it came into effect the 1st of July, 2025. So there’s a whole lot of like WHS amendments, but the key stuff about bullying was that the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission, which only applies to employers under state-based awards now has a lot more powers in relation to stop bullying orders, so they can make them, they can order damages of up to a 100,000, and there are penalties for companies and individuals, who breach these stop bullying orders.

Andrew Douglas: Can I just say, isn’t this just complete nonsense? Now we’ve got a state that has two different sets of law for their own people.

Nina Hoang: Well, I feel like they-

Andrew Douglas: Don’t worry about the rest of Australia.

Nina Hoang: No, but they, I feel like the Industrial Commission has always been a little bit different though.

Andrew Douglas: I know, but that’s a whole-

Nina Hoang: Same is in WA.

Andrew Douglas: I know, but the whole idea is to stop this nonsense.

Nina Hoang: Yeah, but-

Andrew Douglas: Now someone-

Nina Hoang: You really think this is going to be, This is the tipping point. Unions are going to advocate for this in the Fair Work Act.

Andrew Douglas: But just imagine, you’re in government in New South Wales, and I’m working as a contractor to the government, all right? You’re under a state award, I’m under a federal award. You now can get damages award, and I can’t. What crap!

Nina Hoang: Well, that’s what I’m saying, I think the unions are going to push for this to be now part of the Fair Work Act.

Andrew Douglas: Oh, no, no, that’s the problem, this thin end of the wedge stuff.

Nina Hoang: Because that’s always been-

Andrew Douglas: Thin end of the wedge stuff.

Nina Hoang: The argument. That stop bullying orders are toothless tigers, like nothing can be done, there’s no damages.

Andrew Douglas: That’s why we’ve got safety legislation, ugh, that actually they just pat on these. That’s why we have common law.

Nina Hoang: Yeah, but most people don’t know about like, and individuals can’t bring stuff under safety. They have to go through the regulator.

Andrew Douglas: They go through the common law, just like everyone else.

Nina Hoang: Yeah, but it’s not the same. So I reckon, I don’t know, I think it’s going to lead to the changes, Andrew.

Andrew Douglas: Yeah, I know, it is. I don’t disagree. Let’s do the… Why don’t we do the case study? I’m pretty keen on the case study.

Nina Hoang: the case study. Dion ran an importing business, sourcing food from his hometown of Shenzhen. He operated a warehouse in Coolaroo and another in Shenzhen. His wife was a co-director, and his son, Terry, was the Warehouse Manager. The shelving at the Coolaroo site was four metres high, allowing for four lays of pallets. There was sufficient space for a forklift to move between the racking. However, the south end of the racking constructed from linear aluminium extrusion approximately 20 years ago had begun to sag. Dion preferred to use lighter pallets in that area. No external inspection had been conducted on the racking. Dion’s business expanded beyond typical family enterprise when he began supplying Tang stores throughout Australia. To address-

Andrew Douglas: One of my favourite stores by the way.

Nina Hoang: Yeah, they’re great.

Andrew Douglas: [Andrew] Yeah, they’re fantastic.

Nina Hoang: To address talent shortages, he hired Chinese students on short-term visas that allowed them to work in Australia for six months. In early February 2025, a significant stock delivery caused the warehouse to become very full, including the racking at the south end. Peng, a Chinese student working the afternoon shift, was operating a forklift when a pallet became jammed due to the misshapen racking. He attempted to dislodge it using the forklift tines, but was unsuccessful. He then asked Peng for assistance. Very creative, Peng and Feng. Feng climbed onto the forklift tines.

Andrew Douglas: I thought it was actually-

Nina Hoang: And Peng lifted him up. So he could push the pallet back into place. As Feng leaned on the pallet, the racking collapsed, causing him to fall and be crushed under the weight of the falling pallets. Oof! It gets more and more and more morbid.

Andrew Douglas: Can I just say though, Tang do have the best XO sauce in Australia? Best. I just wanted to say that, that’s why I gave I time.

Nina Hoang: I think that they have so many different products.

Andrew Douglas: I know, they have .

Nina Hoang: Anyway, we should stop this free advertising.

Andrew Douglas: Yeah.

Nina Hoang: Does it matter that no one had a forklift licence? Does it matter? Yeah, I think so.

Andrew Douglas: Yeah. Like in so many ways.

Nina Hoang: Right.

Andrew Douglas: No, that is a good question.

Nina Hoang: It’s an obvious question.

Andrew Douglas: It doesn’t matter. Well, it matters in safety law, in such a fundamental way that everyone along the line of command is liable. That’s what-

Nina Hoang: You have to have a forklift licence to operate a forklift.

Andrew Douglas: Okay, go to the next one.

Nina Hoang: Dion had an incident in 2023 where a forklift collided with a warehouse worker causing minor injuries that required ambulance attendance and hospital admission. A prohibition notice was issued requiring licenced forklift drivers, Dion hired one immediately, along with improvement notices for traffic management. The worker left after three months and was not replaced. The warehouse has operated three forklifts over two shifts since winning the Tang contract. Is Dion at risk of prosecution? If so, for what? Yeah, reckless endangerment.

Andrew Douglas: Yeah, so certainly, that is the issue that he has a prior knowledge, so he knows there’s a risk. He knows a risk of serious injury.

Nina Hoang: Yeah.

Andrew Douglas: And he is indifferent, worse than that. And if Feng dies, industrial manslaughter is just lurking.

Nina Hoang: Yeah, and the fact that he made the changes, which means it’s more than, like so he has the capacity to make the changes, I think is an aggravating-

Andrew Douglas: Yeah, yeah, undoubtedly.

Nina Hoang: Factor as well. So what was the racking breach under Australian standard 4808 2012?

Andrew Douglas: Look, I just want to say, people forget that racking is a notifiable. So falling of racking or a failure of racking is a notifiable incident.

Nina Hoang: Because anything falling is.

Andrew Douglas: Yes. But the important part about this is you need a skilled inspector, at least an annual inspection of racking. And this racking here should not have been used at all. Had an inspector arrived, they would’ve said no. There’s a number of other issues under the Australian standard. What I can say is the failure to inspect is critical and would elevate this from a primary breach duty to a very significant, reckless endangerment breach. And I guess the last part is-

Nina Hoang: Oh no.

Andrew Douglas: The last part is we jumped a lot there. Who else could be liable? And the answer is, you can see at the beginning this is a family business where there’s-

Nina Hoang: The other director.

Andrew Douglas: Warehouse managers, directors, wife, son, all those things, they could all end up in jail. And I guess that’s why I chose this. We’ve now had several licencing cases come through, and it is a regular problem, as I said, because of talent shortage and the sudden contraction or growing in business ’cause business is much more volatile. Please, please, please use licence people. All right.

Nina Hoang: Thanks for joining us.

Andrew Douglas: I’ll read more next week. And thank you very much.

Nina Hoang: Give us a thumbs up. Bye.

Andrew Douglas: Bye-bye.