Progress on WA's new Work Health and Safety laws

The work health and safety (WHS) reforms represent the most significant change to workplace health and safety laws in over 30 years, with new legislation bringing together all industries under one Act, the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WHS Act).

On 11 March 2021, the State Government announced that it would enact three sets of WHS regulations, covering mines, petroleum, geothermal energy and general workplaces by January 2022.

The new laws will harmonise WA with other States and Territories (except Victoria), enabling businesses to comply with similar requirements in each State and Territory. However, some provisions have been tailored to suit WA workplaces. The Department and the Regulator (WorkSafe Commissioner) are gearing up for the implementation of the new laws. Detailed instructions for drafting the regulations have been provided to the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office, responsible for drafting the legislation, taking stakeholder feedback into account. Industry, unions and other stakeholders continue to provide advice on the implementation of the WHS regime through current advisory committees.

Instructions have also been prepared to detail transitional arrangements, which will phase in some requirements over the next few years, providing industry with more time to comply. WA’s Work Health and Safety legislation is not expected to come into force until January 2022. This means that the current occupational, mines safety and petroleum safety legislation still applies.

Supporting materials

The Department is developing systems and tools to implement the new WHS laws. This involves reviewing, changing and developing more than 3,000 documents and systems, including:

• codes of practice • policies and procedures • forms and notices • prosecution and enforcement processes • notification and triaging processes • online systems • staff training courses • licensing processes • systems and forms • guidance material • communications (website pages, social media, publications, information sessions, etc.).

New WHS webpages - now live!

The Department has launched a number of new webpages covering the new work health and safety laws. The webpages will assist industry and general workplaces to prepare for the introduction of the legislation.

The WHS webpages focus on the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WHS Act). Work is continuing on the proposed regulations and information will be added to the webpages as it becomes available.

Key features

Topics covered:

• key terms and definitions • roles and responsibilities • consultation and worker representation under WHS • key changes in relation to enforcement. Handy overview of the WHS Act

In addition, the Department, in consultation with the Regulator (WorkSafe Commissioner), has produced an Overview of Western Australia’s Work Health and Safety Act 2020 which is provides guidance to help people understand their health and safety duties and rights at work, and is available on the webpages. It is important to note that the guide is not intended to replace the WHS Act.

The Overview of Western Australia’s Work Health and Safety Act 2020 will be supported by a suite of interpretive guidelines, currently in development, which explain specific sections of the Act. They include:

• the health and safety duty of an officer • the meaning of ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ • how to determine what is reasonably practicable to meet a health and safety duty; • discriminatory, coercive and misleading conduct • a guide to work health and safety for volunteer organisations • incident notification information sheet. Once finalised, any additional guidance materials will be made available on the webpages.