National Farm Safety Week
National Farm Safety Week is an annual national campaign focused on promoting safety behaviour and practices and reducing injuries and deaths on Australian farms.
With one of the highest fatality rates of any industry in Australia, the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector experiences 9.2 deaths per 100,000 workers, according to Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2024.
Each year during the third week of July, the campaign delivers critical farm safety information and awareness activities to Australian farmers and primary producers. The campaign aims to promote a strong safety culture, develop safer workplaces, and reduce the risk of injuries and fatalities on Australian farms.
Farmsafe Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation that promotes and supports a range of activities related to on-farm safety, including National Farm Safety Week.
The theme for the 2025 campaign, ‘Second Chances – Who Know’s How Many You’ll Get?’, reminds all Australians working in agriculture that safety isn’t luck, it’s a mindset and a priority.
Find out more about the campaign on the Farmsafe Australia website.
Supporting safety through the National Farm Safety Education Fund
To support this life-saving work, the Australian Government has committed $375,000 in the 2024-25 Budget through the National Farm Safety Education Fund. This investment helps deliver the annual campaign and supports long-term efforts to improve on-farm safety.
The funding allows Farmsafe Australia to continue delivering National Farm Safety Week activities for an additional three years (2025, 2026 and 2027). Between 2019-2024, Farmsafe Australia received a total of $2 million in funding to support activities promoting on-farm safety across Australia. This included public awareness campaigns, workshops, online resources, strategy development and national collaboration across the sector.
National Farm Safety Education Fund: Improving Farm Safety Practices
The Australian Government also provided $1.6 million to nine applicants in 2021-2024, under the National Farm Safety Education Fund: Improving Farm Safety Practices grant program.
These initiatives played a crucial role in reducing risks and improving safety for farmers, farm workers, families and their communities.
The program aimed to improve farm safety practices and behaviours by supporting awareness and training projects. It also funds projects that develop educational tools to reduce farm accidents.
The projects focused on education and capacity building in two priority areas:
- the next generation of farmers
- industry endorsed training and continued learning.