An industrial manslaughter case against one of Australia's largest sugar milling companies will not proceed to trial, after a magistrate found there was not enough evidence it was responsible for the electrocution of an employee.
MSF Sugar worker Brett Quinn, 49, was killed while working on a crane that either touched or came too close to overhead powerlines in Far North Queensland in July 2019.
The Cairns Magistrates Court heard Mr Quinn was a supervisor on the job site, where a cane railway line was being extended, and was also the dogman on the crane – holding a segment of rail – at the time of his death.
Queensland's Office of the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor alleged MSF Sugar was negligent in failing to implement various control measures at the work site.
Those included requesting for the overhead powerlines to be temporarily disconnected, fencing or delineating a defined work area, and the installation of warning sensors or limiting devices to prevent the crane from moving into contact with the powerlines.
Quinn an 'experienced' worker
MSF Sugar, represented in court by barrister Richard Perry KC, argued there was not enough evidence for the company to be committed to stand trial.
Mr Perry told the court Mr Quinn was an experienced and well-qualified supervisor who made the decision to substantially deviate from the safe work method he himself had established.
The court heard Mr Quinn had directed the crane driver to take the machinery down Irwin Access Road at Little Mulgrave, south of Cairns, where it came too close to the powerlines.
In discharging MSF Sugar, Magistrate Kevin Priestly said the evidence presented to the court suggested the decision to deviate from the job site's established safe work method was "entirely" Mr Quinn's.
"Respectfully, I say the prosecution in its submission doesn't adequately address the question of how the deviation in some way is attributed to MSF," Mr Priestly said.
"It's not an example of mere inadvertence or an error of judgement.
"It's so substantial a deviation from what was the safe work method, it seems to me a jury properly instructed could not convict on that evidence."
Tight-knit community 'saddened'
The prosecution of MSF Sugar began in September 2021.
It was the first time industrial manslaughter charges under Queensland's electrical safety laws had been laid since the offence was introduced in 2017.
Robert Hill, the Electrical Trades Union's organiser in Far North Queensland, was encouraged by the regulator's decision to prosecute the case but said the outcome would not bring the closure people were wanting after Mr Quinn's death.
"It's a small town, it's a small community and it's a small workplace — it employs a lot of people but it's still got that country feel," he said.
"Everyone was deeply saddened and very affected by it, if I'm honest with you."
MSF Sugar has been contacted for comment.
The company will return to court next month on a different charge of failing to comply with an electrical safety duty.
