Australian Regulatory Framework
Australia’s workplace health and safety system is built on a hierarchy of legislation and regulations. Understanding which rules apply to your organisation — and how they relate to each other — helps you use SteadyOn more effectively.
This page is not legal advice. For specific compliance questions, consult a qualified health and safety advisor or lawyer.
A note on the model WHS laws
Section titled “A note on the model WHS laws”Australia does not have a single national WHS law. Instead, Safe Work Australia develops a set of model WHS laws — a model WHS Act, model WHS Regulations, and model Codes of Practice — which each state and territory then adopts (and enforces) as its own legislation. Safe Work Australia writes the model laws but does not enforce them.
Most jurisdictions have adopted the harmonised model laws: the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory, and (since 2022) Western Australia. Victoria is the main exception — it has not adopted the model laws and continues to operate under its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) and OHS Regulations, which are broadly similar in intent but differ in detail and terminology. There are also minor variations between the states that have adopted the model laws.
The pages that follow describe the model WHS laws. If you operate in Victoria, or across multiple states, check the specific requirements with your state or territory WHS regulator.
The legislation at a glance
Section titled “The legislation at a glance”| Legislation | What it covers | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| WHS Act 2011 | Primary duty of care, officer due diligence, consultation, notifiable incidents | All PCBUs with workers |
| WHS Regulations 2011 | Risk management, specific hazards, emergency plans, facilities | All PCBUs |
| Consultation, representation & participation | Duty to consult, health and safety representatives, committees | PCBUs with workers |
| First aid (Code of Practice) | First aid kits, trained first aiders, assessing first aid needs | All PCBUs |
| Emergency plans (Code of Practice) | Emergency plans, drills, wardens, evacuation diagrams | Most workplaces with buildings |
| Privacy Act 1988 | Handling incident data, health records, employee personal information | Most organisations handling personal data |
How the layers fit together
Section titled “How the layers fit together”The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) is the foundation. It sets the overarching duty of care — that every PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its workers and others affected by its work.
Below the Act sit the WHS Regulations — these translate the broad duties in the Act into specific requirements for managing risk and particular hazards. The most significant areas for most workplaces are:
- WHS Regulations — the day-to-day operational requirements: how to manage risk, specific hazard chapters (hazardous manual tasks, noise, plant, hazardous chemicals), emergency plans, and workplace facilities
- Consultation, representation and participation — how to involve workers in health and safety decisions through consultation, health and safety representatives, and committees
Alongside these sit the Codes of Practice — practical guidance approved under the WHS Act. Codes of Practice are not regulations: they are admissible in court as evidence of what is known about a hazard or risk, and a court may regard them as the standard expected, but you can comply in other ways that achieve an equivalent or better standard. The most relevant for most workplaces are:
- First Aid in the Workplace — assessing and providing first aid
- Emergency Plans — preparing and testing emergency plans
Finally, the Privacy Act 1988 applies whenever you collect, store, or use personal information about workers or incident parties, including health information.
How SteadyOn addresses each area
Section titled “How SteadyOn addresses each area”| Area | SteadyOn module |
|---|---|
| Identifying and managing hazards | Hazards |
| Documenting risk controls | Hazards — Control measures field |
| Emergency procedures (documented) | Documents |
| Incident recording and investigation | Incidents |
| Notifiable incident tracking | Incidents — Notifiable flag |
| Worker hazard reporting | Hazards and Incidents (any member can create) |
| Public / contractor incident reporting | The public reporting link |
| Corrective actions and follow-up | Actions |
| Workplace inspections | Inspections |
| First aid training records | Training Courses + Enrollments (with a First Aider role and a course requirement) |
| Emergency warden certification | Training Courses + Enrollments (with a Warden role) |
| Audit trail for due diligence | The Log page + per-entity Log tab |
| Board / officer compliance visibility | Dashboard and Reports (incl. Board Report) |
A note on “so far as is reasonably practicable”
Section titled “A note on “so far as is reasonably practicable””The WHS Act and its regulations use this phrase extensively. It means you are required to take precautions that a reasonable person in your position, with knowledge of the risks, would take — weighing the likelihood and degree of harm against what is known about the hazard, the availability of ways to eliminate or minimise it, and the cost of doing so.
SteadyOn’s risk assessment tools (the 5×5 risk matrix, BRAG status, and corrective action priority levels) are designed to help you make and document these judgements consistently. A documented risk assessment is evidence that you considered the risk and made a reasoned decision about how to manage it.
See Risk Assessment for full detail on how the risk matrix works.