Talking on radio about the death of Graham Palmer, who was the manager of his Picton farm, Graeme Kirk described Mr Palmer as a "can do type of person" managing "a dream" both men shared.
Sadly that dream ended tragically when an all-terrain vehicle Mr Palmer was using to transport pipes down a steep slope overturned and killed him.
Back then Mr Kirk wouldn't have thought this tragedy would work its way to the Industrial Relations Court of NSW, and the state's Supreme Court, before going all the way to the High Court. But it did.
And the case has drawn attention to occupational health and safety matters in ways that recent news about the tragic four deaths of young workers installing insulation did not.
Let's remember fatalities at work are all too common. Safe Work Australia's data from workers' compensation claims (NDS), notifications under occupational health and safety legislation (NFC) and coronial data (NCIS) in 2006-07, identified 453 work-related traumatic injury fatalities in Australia. Industries affected most were transport, construction, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, each with close to one or more deaths every week.
The four deaths making news because of their association with the Government's insulation scheme are tragic, but mostly political reasons.
What the case of Mr Palmer does, instead, is focus attention on OH&S laws around the nation and the struggle between state and federal governments for a legal uniformity for which an "in principle" agreement was struck last year for a series of state OH&S laws passed by state parliaments, rather than a takeover by the Federal Government.
By the time the Palmer case reached the High Court, it had been in the courts for 10 years.
The High Court was critical of the NSW courts that had dealt with the matter previously, particularly the Industrial Relations Court, which had ruled that in OH&S prosecutions, which are criminal charges, the prosecutor is not required to specify in the charges that particular measures should have been taken by the employer to avoid the tragedy; all the prosecutor had to do was allege that, because of an unspecified failure on the part of the employer, there was a general risk to the health and safety of an employee - often referred to as "guilty until proven innocent".
The High Court also took a swipe at the Industrial Relations Court because it failed to uphold the Evidence Act and allowed Mr Kirk to appear as a witness (albeit with the defence counsel's consent) for the prosecution. This led one High Court judge to muse that the Industrial Court of NSW should not be allowed responsibility for OH&S prosecutions.
The scene is set for the NSW Government, with support from Unions NSW, to resist the national uniform legislation, if it involves a loosening of the tough NSW laws just for the sake of uniformity.
In any case, as it's the year before a state election, I doubt that John Robertson will be rushing to downgrade state standards by moving on the national laws before the election. Meanwhile, the NSW system will remain on life-support with authorities having to rethink whether OH&S can remain in the Industrial Relations Court, or risk a stoush and move it to another court.
Lachlan Riches is a partner with the law firm Taylor & Scott.
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