Farmsafe Australia has launched its 2025 Farm Safety Week campaign.
Farmsafe Australia launched its 2025 National Farm Safety Week July 20 to 26 campaign, centred around the theme Second Chances – Who Knows How Many You’ll Get?
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The campaign comes with a national call to action — if you’ve had a near miss on the farm, don’t just move on; learn from it, share it safely, and use it to protect those around you.
Accompanying the campaign is the release of the 2025 Safer Farms Report (sponsored by WFI), which provides a sobering picture of on-farm harm over the past 18 months.
Following a historic low of 32 farm fatalities in 2023, the sector recorded 72 deaths in 2024, the highest fatality figure in more than two decades.
Farmsafe Australia chair Felicity Richards said the data showed farm safety wasn’t just about preventing the worst-case scenario, it’s about reading the signs before they happen.
“So many incidents are preceded by a ‘close call’. A moment when we got lucky,” Ms Richards said.
“But unless we talk about what almost happened, and what we did differently afterwards, we’re missing one of the most powerful tools we have to change behaviour.”
Farmsafe Australia chair Felicity Richards.
The Second Chances campaign highlights the role of the near-miss as a warning sign.
As part of the campaign, Farmsafe is encouraging teams and families to speak more openly about fatigue and warning signs.
Some of the campaign’s key fatigue reminders include:
Make time for the plan, not just the job: A short pre-job check can prevent long-term consequences.
Don’t let deadlines drown out danger: One honest conversation beats one emergency phone call.
Build in time for safety: Schedule back-up and build buffer days into pressure periods.
Call the huddle: A quick check-in can reveal risks someone else might not see.
The campaign recognises that many farmers process tough experiences and near-misses quietly.
“We know these stories are often hard to talk about,” Ms Richards said.
“That conversation can lead to real action: putting seatbelts on in side-by-sides, rethinking fatigue management, changing up how we supervise kids.
“None of those things happen in silence.”
For the first time, side-by-side vehicles have overtaken quads and tractors as the leading cause of fatality, a major shift in the data trends over the past 10 years.
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