New Health and Safety Reform to Simplify Compliance for Businesses and Workers

The changes will make Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) a central part of the compliance framework, offering clearer, more practical guidance for industries and sectors.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, Brooke van Velden, has announced significant reforms aimed at simplifying workplace health and safety regulations for businesses and workers across the country. As part of the reform, safe harbours of deemed compliance will be introduced, helping businesses gain certainty about what they need to do to meet their health and safety obligations.

The changes will make Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) a central part of the compliance framework, offering clearer, more practical guidance for industries and sectors. ACOPs are already in place as guidelines to help people comply with health and safety duties, but under the new reforms, businesses can be assured that following these guidelines will be sufficient to meet their legal requirements.

Minister van Velden acknowledges the confusion many businesses face when it comes to the concept of "reasonably practicable," a term used in health and safety law that defines the level of risk mitigation businesses need to provide. “I have heard time and time again from businesses that they are uncertain about what ‘reasonably practicable’ actually means in practice. The new reforms will address this uncertainty by providing more and better guidance,” said van Velden.

The goal is to make health and safety compliance more accessible and less burdensome for businesses, particularly those that do not have the resources to hire external consultants. “Health and safety compliance should not require businesses to spend money on consultants just to understand if they are compliant with the law,” van Velden explained. “This change will give businesses more confidence that if they follow an ACOP, they are doing enough to meet their legal obligations.”

The introduction of safe harbours will allow businesses that follow these guidelines to be deemed compliant with the law, thus reducing the burden of navigating complex regulations. The shift towards relying more on ACOPs rather than regulations also aims to address the issue of outdated or overly complex regulations that may not align with current industry practices.

Currently, many regulations are slow to change, with updates often taking years. Moreover, even when new regulations are introduced, technological advancements and industry developments can make them outdated almost immediately. ACOPs, on the other hand, are more adaptable and responsive to changes in industry practices and emerging technologies. They can be sector-specific or offer cross-industry solutions to common health and safety issues, making them a more versatile tool for businesses of all sizes.

The proposed reform also introduces a collaborative approach to developing ACOPs. While WorkSafe, the government body responsible for workplace safety, will continue to play a key role in the approval process, the new model will allow industry groups, organizations, and even individual businesses to propose new ACOPs. This will speed up the process and ensure that the guidelines reflect real-world practices and address the specific needs of the industries most affected.

Minister van Velden emphasized that each new ACOP will be approved against strict standards to ensure they meet high-quality criteria. “We are committed to making sure that the guidance provided is practical, achievable, and effective,” she said.

These changes are part of a broader reform of the health and safety system, which will also involve updates to relevant legislation later this year. The aim of the reform is to ensure that businesses and workers have a clear understanding of what they need to do to manage health and safety risks effectively while reducing unnecessary red tape and compliance costs.

By shifting the focus from complex regulations to clearer, more flexible ACOPs, the reform is expected to help businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, navigate health and safety obligations more easily. The move is also seen as a step toward supporting innovation and the growth of emerging industries that may not yet have clearly defined regulatory frameworks.

The health and safety system reform promises to bring much-needed clarity and simplicity, enabling businesses to focus more on implementing effective safety measures rather than worrying about compliance paperwork. As the legislation progresses later this year, further details on the rollout of the new ACOP framework will be made available to the public.

These changes reflect a growing recognition of the need to adapt to the rapidly changing business landscape, ensuring that health and safety laws are both effective and fit for purpose in today's fast-paced industries.