Lift & Hoist Australasia: Still Rising Up

LHA APRIL 2019 | THE INSIDER | ASHLEY THACKER

Source products and services only from specialist providers, especially when safety-critical equipment, such as lifting gear, is involved.

 Six years ago, I was interviewed by this magazine’s sister title. I was still in my twenties and had recently been named the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association’s (LEEA) youngest ever board member. I was modest about the achievement but I think it inspired the editor’s choice of headline for the article, “Rising Up”. It chimed nicely with the industry and the subject matter as well.

However, I never saw it like that. Rising Up, to me, was more about the industry collectively achieving fundamental change. I imagined a new generation of lifting industry professionals who would campaign for certain principles, such as the importance of working with specialists and technical experts on all matters related to lifting equipment and height safety; and wholesale acceptance of a third party to deliver the same competency-based training content all over the world, tailored to each geography’s standards. Actually, I saw these two facets as the pillars of progress.

Since Ranger became Australia’s first full member nearly a decade ago, it’s been my belief that LEEA will be a key component in making that happen. As I remember putting it in the aforementioned interview, the association’s ethos incorporates both a company’s ability to dot its i’s and cross its t’s, while assessing that people doing the job in hand understand what they are doing and have the correct skills and knowledge required to do it safely. I’ve always been an advocate for an individual’s competency in addition to broader systems and processes.

Read the full LHA article here