Category: Regulator enforcement & audits
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Federal Government provides $42.7 Million to lift paywall on Australian Standards
The Federal Government has announced a $42.7 million budgetary measure to make all legally mandated Australian Standards free to view. Delivered in the 2026–27 Federal Budget, the funding will provide ongoing grants to Standards Australia over the next four financial years. This will establish free public, read-only digital access to all standards referenced in Commonwealth,…
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The danger of reactive controls: The $78,000 SAET temporary edge protection failure
Listen to an audio overview of this article from the AI Generated ‘State of Safety Podcast‘ The South Australian Employment Court has penalised a principal residential and civil contractor, confirming that installing an unstable temporary safety barrier is a serious oversight that violates work health and safety laws. In Farrell v Arcon Architectural Construction Pty…
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The weaponisation of invisible risks: Safe Work Australia unleashes the first national biological hazards code
Safe Work Australia has finalised the national model WHS Code of Practice, Managing the risks of biological hazards at work. This newly minted regulatory instrument stands as the first comprehensive, standalone biological risk framework established anywhere in the world. The finalised code permanently alters corporate risk profiling by removing infectious agents, microscopic pathogens, and environmental…
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The death of administrative warmth—The $3 Million escalation of Victoria’s first workplace manslaughter fine
The Victorian Court of Appeal has permanently altered the calculation of corporate risk by heavily escalating the financial cost of industrial negligence. In the landmark appellate determination of Director of Public Prosecutions v LH Holding Management Pty Ltd [2025] VSCA 75, the bench sustained a DPP appeal and more than doubled the state’s first finalized…
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The standalone cop on the beat—Deconstructing the structural splitting of SafeWork NSW
The New South Wales regulatory landscape has undergone a major transformation that alters how work health and safety compliance is enforced across the state. Through the passage of the SafeWork NSW (Independent Regulator Reorganization) Act 2025, the state Parliament has permanently removed the safety regulator from the Department of Customer Service, establishing it as a…