History of Safe Work Australia
Safe Work Australia has grown from a premise of assisting all the States and Territories to align and reduce financial burden through duplication of efforts. Legislative powers of the Parliament are outlined in the Australian Constitution that does not provide for Federal Government to legislate for Health and Safety. In 1985 the Australian Commonwealth government introduced legislation for the formation of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC).
NOHSC was abolished in 2005 and replaced by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC), which was subsequently replaced by Safe Work Australia in 2009. Safe Work Australia was established by an Act of Parliament, with statutory functions established by the Safe Work Australia Act 2008. Safe Work Australia (SWA) is now the national policy body representing the Health and Safety interests of the Commonwealth, States and Territories, as well as workers and employers. SWA is jointly funded by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments through the Intergovernmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety.
In 2011, Safe Work Australia (in consultation with the States and Territories) developed the model work health and safety (WHS) laws to be implemented across Australia. To become legally binding the Commonwealth, states and territories must separately implement them as their own laws. Safe Work Australia is responsible for maintaining the model WHS laws, but don’t regulate or enforce them. The model laws have been implemented in all states except Victoria. Some states have made minor variations to ensure the legislation is consistent with their relevant drafting protocols and other internal laws and processes.
Role of Safe Work Australia
Safe Work Australia is seen as the lead in the development of national policy to improve work health and safety and workers’ compensation. Specifically, it:
- Develops and evaluates the model WHS legislative framework,
- Develops the national WHS compensation policy,
- Undertakes research and collects, analyses and reports data relating to WHS,
- Raises awareness of WHS as a key issue in the community,
- Improves WHS by understanding what influences Australian workplace cultures and putting in place mechanisms to effect change,
- Unifies WHS laws throughout Australia, and
- Identifies opportunities for improvement in workers’ compensation arrangements.
As of this Blog, SWA has 15 members including:
- an independent Chair
- nine members representing the Commonwealth and each state and territory,
- two members representing the interests of workers,
- two members representing the interests of employers, and
- the Chief Executive Officer of Safe Work Australia.
Members are nominated by their respective Minister or organisation and appointed by the Commonwealth Minister with responsibility for work health and safety matters for a three-year period.
At present the Queensland member position remains vacant.
The Commonwealth, states and territories regulate and enforce WHS laws. The list of regulators is as follows:
- Worksafe ACT Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety ACT
- WorkSafe WA Minister for Industrial Relations WA
- Worksafe QLD Minister of Industrial Relations QLD
- SafeWork NSW Minister for Fair Trading NSW
- WorkSafe Victoria Minister for Workplace Safety Victoria
- SA Worksafe Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector SA
- NT Worksafe Attorney General and Minister of Justice NT
- Worksafe Tasmania Minster for Workplace Safety and Consumer Affairs Tasmania
- Comcare Minister of Employment and Workplace Relations Australian Government
In 2018, Safe Work Australia was requested to undertake a review of the model WHS laws to ensure that they were operating as intended, including reviewing the framework of duties and the compliance and enforcement provisions in practice. The Final Report into the review of the model WHS laws (the Report) was released in 2019 and made a total of 34 recommendations. The model WHS laws were updated to incorporate several the recommendations from the Report.
Safe Work Australia embarked on the next round of reviews with amendments announced and on 6th June 2022, the national Model WHS Laws were amended to consider a wide range of matters. These included recommendations from Marie Boland’s independent review of the laws in 2018. These amendments to the model WHS laws reflect an agreement reached by the Ministers responsible for WHS in each jurisdiction in May 2021 regarding the implementation of recommendations made by the Boland Review.
The Boland Review found the model WHS laws were working largely as intended. However, it noted that more needed to be done to help parties meet their duties with respect to psychological health and ensure monetary penalties act as an effective deterrent where breaches of the WHS laws are proven. To date the introduction of the psychological health recommendation to the Model legislation has seen all states enacting this into their health and safety legislation.
Health and Safety Representative
Safe Work Australia also provides guidance to the States and Territories on the Health and Safety Representatives as outlined in the Model Work Health and Safety Legislation. They provide specific information on,
- Forming work groups
- Electing health and safety representatives
- The role of health and safety representatives
- HSR training
There is also supporting information, as
In a short period of time, the initiatives developed through Safe Work Australia have proven to be improving the health and safety arena across Australia. The stepped and measured change process is being managed well and businesses who need to work across borders in Australia have had a huge burden of differing compliance requirements removed.
In time these changes will steady but Safe Work Australia will still be “working to achieve healthier, safer and more productive workplaces through improvements to work health and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation arrangements.”
If you are interested in our WHS Consultancy services, you can contact David, Andrew or Mark to discuss your Health and Safety Issues.
We have qualified and certified Safety Consultants that can assist you in your business and offer a range of WHS consulting services along with general and specific health and safety training courses.
Contact us today for an obligation free quote on any of our services.