Amendments to the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws have been published:
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- The amendments implement a number of recommendations from the 2018 .
The amendments do not automatically apply in a jurisdiction. For the model WHS Act and model WHS Regulations to have effect in a jurisdiction they must be enacted in that jurisdiction.
They include amendments to:
- the model WHS Regulations to deal with psychosocial risks (recommendation 2)
- work group provisions (recommendation 7b)
- health and safety representative (HSR) training (recommendation 10)
- remove the 24-hour notice period for entry permit holders (recommendation 15)
- align the process for issuing service of notices to provide clarity and consistency (recommendation 16)
- enable inspectors to require production of documents and answers to questions within 30 days of any inspector’s entry to a workplace (recommendation 17)
- clarify that a WHS regulator’s power to obtain information relevant to investigations of potential breaches of the model WHS laws has extra-territorial application (recommendation 18)
- clarify the circumstances in which WHS regulators can share information between jurisdictions (recommendation 19)
- include gross negligence as a fault element in the Category 1 offence (recommendation 23a)
- improve regulator accountability for investigation progress (recommendation 24)
- prohibit insurance for WHS penalties (recommendation 26)
- improve record keeping and operator training for amusement devices and passenger ropeways (recommendation 28)
- compliance with Standards not mandatory unless specified (recommendation 31b)
- give effect to recommendations that are minor or technical in nature.
Go to the web page for a more detailed overview of the amendments.
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