Analysing safety data for an entire industry group – a case study from Queensland coal seam gas

Abstract

This is a case study tracking an innovation in incident data usage for an industry cohort. The industry group Safer Together has been collecting and collating data since 2009; for the last 10 years the process has been handled by one of the participating operating companies. In the fourth quarter of 2023, a transition was made to partner with a data analytics specialist who is also a researcher from Griffith University’s Safety Science Innovation Lab. This case study outlines the processes introduced to take 15 years’ worth of industry data and turn it into actionable insights. The introduction of new data capture tools allowed for easier industry participation. Innovative approaches to analysis, including a pilot program on quantifying injury severity, have changed the conversation around industry safety performance in the Queensland coal seam gas (CSG) industry. The change in the data analysis approach has enabled one key transition: data has transitioned from a briefly referenced item on the senior leadership agenda to a driver of engaging conversations about safety performance at an executive level. The Senior Leaders Group at Safer Together has endorsed the sharing of aggregated results for the industry cohort so that others may understand the processes introduced and see what is driving renewed executive-level interest in incident data for Queensland CSG.