Australia WHS Legislation: Similarities & Differences by State

While most of Australia’s states and territories follow the same WHS legislations, each jurisdiction has similarities and differences, and it’s important to understand what the rules are depending on where you’re conducting business to ensure that you’re compliant and not breaking any laws. 

As we touched on in this blog, Australia’s WHS laws are based on the Model WHS act of 2012, which has streamlined the laws to cover all bases for each jurisdiction to use. As it stands, Victoria is the only state that hasn’t moved its WHS laws over to the Model Act, so they still have to refer to the OH&S Act of 2004. 

SafeWork Australia is the national body for WHS and compliance in Australia, but the Commonwealth and each state and territory have their own regulator for their jurisdiction, as listed below:

• Commonwealth 

  Comcare

• Australian Capital Territory 

  WorkSafe ACT 

• New South Wales

  SafeWork NSW

• Northern Territory

  NT WorkSafe 

• Queensland

  Workplace Health and Safety Queensland 

• South Australia

  SafeWork SA 

• Tasmania

  WorkSafe Tasmania 

• Victoria

  WorkSafe Victoria 

• Western Australia 

  WorkSafe Western Australia 

These regulators are responsible for enforcing WHS legislation and issuing penalties for breaching those laws. Penalties can have a significant cost to businesses and individuals and can even result in the imprisonment of offenders depending on the severity of the offence, so it’s essential to be aware of what the law dictates for each state and territory. For more information on the laws in your state, you can refer to the Australian Government business website here.

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