Occupational Health and Safety


Occupational health and safety legislation is inconsistent across state and territory jurisdictions, adding costs and uncertainty. In some jurisdictions, such as New South Wales, the duty of care of employers is unclear and regulators are reluctant to offer advice for fear of incurring liability. The result is often a focus on producing paper trails, such as bulging safe work method statements, to show compliance but they are of little value in managing risks on sites.

For these reasons, ANRA strongly supports the Commonwealth’s initiative to produce model Occupational Health and Safety legislation for adoption by all states and territories.   

Through the Council of Australian Governments, the Government is proposing over five years to produce harmonised OHS legislation, including a model principal act, model regulations and codes of practice.