Health & Safety Legislation

Australian laws regarding health and safety in the workplace are many and varied. Each state has its own set of laws regarding health and safety.

Frequent changes to legislation governing health and safety can result in employers and employees being unaware of all their rights and responsibilities.

The OHS&E Unit produces a quarterly legislative update that is circulated via email. These updates are also accessible online in pdf format.

To view the Legislation Updates click over to our publications page. Select a legislative update to download it in pdf format

Australia does not have Federal laws that address workplace health and safety. This is the responsibility of each state and territory. The National Occupational Health & Safety Commission (NOHSC) is a federal body that works with the states to achieve national conformance and ways to meet legislative responsibilities. NOHSC also conducts a number of projects that include national data systems; improved access to OHS information, research efforts and the monitoring of progress against the National OHS Improvement Framework. To review the work and activities of NOSHC please click here.

Significant changes to Victoria's laws include revised legislation for Manual Handling, Dangerous Goods and Hazardous Substances during 2000. New legislation and supporting documents for the management of Noise will come online in February 2004. To view information about Victoria's health and safety legislation please click on the map above.

A new Occupational Health & Safety Act (2000) is complemented by the OHS Regulations that came on line during 2001. The regulations provide broad coverage for all workplaces along with specified control measures for particular hazards and industry activities. There is a twelve month transitional period for the implementation of the new regulations. The Regulations can be viewed at the WorkCover website by clicking on the above map.

The Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations (1995) have remained vastly unchanged since their inception, although there have been some amendments such as increased fines for breaches of the Act. The Regulations are available for downloading from the WorkCover office by clicking on the above map.

The Health, Safety and Welfare Act (1995) has a similar framework to that of South Australia. The Workplace Health and Safety Regulations that were released in 1998 support the legislation. To view information about the Tasmanian legislation go to the Workplace Standards website by clicking on the above map.