Occupational Violence Prevention in Local Government: Douglas Shire Council

200 Employees

MOSSMAN, QUEENSLAND

Like every local government in Australia, Douglas Shire Council’s frontline workers — customer service officers, rangers, library staff, parks teams and field crews — deal with members of the public every day. And like every council, a small but rising proportion of those interactions involve aggression, intimidation and abuse. An internal Occupational Violence Working Group (OVWG) report named the problem and recommended a path forward.

The harder question was the one most councils never resolve: how do you actually turn a report into changed behaviour on the ground? Council needed more than a document. It needed leadership accountability that would stand up to regulator scrutiny under Queensland’s psychosocial WHS obligations, governance that gave the CEO and elected members confidence the recommendations were being acted on — not shelved — and communication tools that would land with workers on day one, not gather dust on an intranet.

Solution

Douglas Shire Council engaged Harrisons to do what reports alone can’t: convert the OVWG’s recommendations into governance, leadership behaviour and frontline communications the workforce would actually see, hear and act on. Harrisons applied a structured implementation approach used across local government and high-risk public-facing sectors — built around the principle that workplace safety changes when leaders are visible, accountabilities are named, and the message is consistent from induction to incident.

Harrisons delivered a structured approach that included:

A Recommendation Allocation and Tracking Framework — so every OVWG recommendation has a named owner, a due date and a status visible to the Executive
A Leadership Safety Commitment and Zero Tolerance Statement — giving the CEO and senior leaders a single, defensible position to communicate internally, to the community and to regulators
Team-facing communication documents and workplace posters — designed so frontline workers know what behaviour is unacceptable, who has their back and exactly what to do when an incident occurs
Induction and leadership briefing presentations — embedding the message into the moments that shape culture: new starter onboarding and recurring leadership forums
Steering Committee Terms of Reference and supporting governance documentation — creating a defensible oversight structure with clear membership, decision rights and reporting cadence
A Zero Tolerance communication strategy — turning a one-off launch into sustained awareness, so the message holds twelve months from now, not just twelve days

The work was delivered in phases, embedded in Council’s existing leadership rhythm rather than bolted on. The result is a self-sustaining system Council owns and runs — not a consultant’s playbook gathering dust.

Testimonial

“We had a report and a genuine commitment to act on it — what we didn’t have was the bridge between

the two. Harrisons built that bridge. They took our recommendations and turned them into a governance

structure, leadership commitments and communications our people actually engage with. The difference is

that occupational violence prevention isn’t just a policy we point to now — it’s how we operate.”

– Paul Hoye, Acting General Manager TC Jasper Corporate & Communities, Douglas Shire Council

Outcome

Douglas Shire Council now has what most local governments still don’t: a clear, accountable system for preventing occupational violence — not just a policy that says they oppose it. Every recommendation has an owner. Every leader has a script. Every frontline worker has a visible message that says Council stands behind them.

For the community, that translates into something tangible: customer service counters, libraries, parks and field operations staffed by people who feel safer, stay longer and deliver better. For Council, it means a position the CEO and elected members can defend — to the regulator, to insurers, to the workforce and to the public. Douglas Shire Council has turned a report into a standard.

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Occupational Violence Prevention in Local Government: Douglas Shire Council