Video: Catherine Velisha - Velisha National Farms

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My name is Catherine Velisha and I'm Managing Director of Velisha Farms.

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My Grandfather and his brothers, they started farming here in 1939 and they started

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as dairy farmers and as things evolved, they changed to horticulture.

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I think good safety actually means good business and it's a benefit to productivity, 

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because when you're constantly looking at your processes and your people,

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what it does is make sure that you're running as effectively and as efficiently

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as you can, so we see it as a benefit to our business, not a cost.

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We obviously have a packing facility which is lot's of machinery

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lots of moving parts lots of people.

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On farm you've obviously got really dangerous equipment like tractors and harvesters,

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so horticulture and agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries.

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That is always front of mind with us.

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I think fear is a huge barrier to people taking on a safety journey within their businesses.

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Industry and people who have maybe started taking that journey what

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we need to do is help other businesses have access to people who will help them

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and meet them for where they are.

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So it's no longer something to be fearful of but an improvement onto your business.

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I think horticulture is such an evolving industry that probably doesn't get spoken

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about a lot so I think the biggest impact that we’ve seen in our business is,

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it's education, it's giving that approachable, understandable, 

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real life knowledge to people so they can implement.

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My advice to farmers is don't be afraid.

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There's people out the that want to help you and make sure that you educate yourself

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and your people to help build capacity. 

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I’ve decided to take on that journey and with that

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comes the responsibility of keeping my people safe.