Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission - Australian Goverment
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission - Australian Goverment

Draft national model occupational health and safety legislation

The importance of harmonised occupational health and safety (OHS) laws has long been recognised as a critical area of regulatory reform.

In July 2008, the Council of Australian Governments signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement which establishes the commitment of all states and territories and the Commonwealth to the adoption of uniform OHS laws by 2011, complemented by nationally consistent approaches to compliance and enforcement.  

Currently all states and territories and the Commonwealth are responsible for making and enforcing their own OHS laws. Although these draw on a similar approach for regulating workplaces, there are some differences in the application and detail of the laws.

Safe Work Australia is responsible for developing national model OHS legislation that can be uniformly adopted by all jurisdictions. The model legislation will consist of a principal OHS Act, supported by model regulations and model codes of practice that can be readily adopted around Australia.  This requires each state, territory and the Commonwealth to pass their own laws that mirror the model OHS laws and adopt them by December 2011.

An exposure draft of the model legislation is open for public comment for a period of six weeks from 28 September until 9 November 2009. You may access the exposure draft at Model OHS legislation public comment. 

Commonwealth departments and agencies who have comments or queries on the implications of the national OHS legislation for the Commonwealth jurisdiction are encouraged to direct these to Model.Legislation@comcare.gov.au. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Comcare will consider any comments received for the purpose of developing a consolidated Commonwealth position on the model legislation.

Key links and information

Contact:

Phone: