Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, Hon Brooke van Velden made several announcements this week, providing key details about the Government’s intentions on health and safety reform.

Below we outline what the H&S reforms may mean for businesses. For further insight, read Employment Partner, Bronwyn Heenan’s opinion column  in today’s BusinessDesk (paywall).

1. Going for growth: Cutting health and safety red tape

• The first change proposed is a carve out for small, low risk businesses from general requirements under the Heath & Safety at Work Act (HSWA). 
• Those businesses will only have to manage critical risks and provide basic facilities to ensure worker welfare. 
• What defines a ‘small business’ and more importantly what defines a ‘low-risk business’ (along with which obligations they will be exempt from), will be critical to understand.  

2. Freeing the great outdoors from health and safety scope creep

• The Minister announced a change to the HSWA that clarifies landowners’ liability and will, in her words, “free up private and public land for recreational use”. 
• Landowners will not be responsible if someone is injured on their land while doing recreational activities. Health and safety responsibilities will lie squarely with the organisation running the activities. 
• The change will apply to both public and private land, from farms and forestry to school grounds, local council land and regional and national parks. 

3. Health and safety governance and management change coming

• There will be a clarification of the distinction between governance and operational management of health and safety responsibilities to “reduce directors’ fear and risk of overcompliance”. 
• The day-to-day management of health and safety risks is to be left to managers so that directors and boards can focus on governance and the strategic oversight of the business. 
• It is not clear at this stage where (or how) that distinction between governance and operations will be defined and/or operate. It will also be interesting to see whether the Minister intends changing any of the due diligence obligations for directors. 

4. Reducing ambiguity about what is reasonably practical for health and safety compliance

• There are proposed changes to the approved codes of practice model (ACOP) to reassure people that if they comply with an ACOP, they have done enough to meet their health and safety duties (of managing risk to the extent that is ‘reasonably practicable’).
• Rather than having WorkSafe lead the process exclusively, the Government is introducing a change to allow individuals and groups, such as industry organisations, to initiate work on ACOPs to speed things up and ensure they reflect what will work in practice. The Minister will then approve each new ACOP against a set of standards to assure they are high quality. 

In summary

All of these changes are part of the health and safety system reform work that has been carried out in line with the ACT-National coalition agreement and the Government has indicated it will be progressing through changes to legislation later this year, coming into force in 2026. 

We will keep you up to date with the introduction of the Bill and timing of submissions to select committee. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss the potential impact of these reforms on your business, contact one of our experts.

Special thanks to Mathew Barnett for his assistance in writing this article.