Safe Work Australia is encouraging the public sector to be leaders in work health and safety practices. All levels of government have a role to play in providing leadership to encourage safe and healthy workplaces. Safe Work Australia is driving research in the areas of work health and safety and workers’ compensation, and has developed resources and guidance materials to encourage the up-take of best-practice in the public sector.
Leadership in government workplaces
Safe Work Australia oversees the implementation and further development of the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012 (National Strategy), a collaborative initiative between Federal, State and Territory governments and employer and employee groups.
The National Strategy identifies five national priorities to bring about short and long-term work health and safety improvements, as well as longer-term cultural change. The fifth priority is to strengthen the capacity of government to influence work health and safety outcomes. It aims to improve the health and safety performance of government.
The Safe and Sound Discussion Paper outlines a best practice model on safety leadership in government workplaces and was developed to support the achievement of the outcomes of the National Strategy’s priority five.
View the Safe and Sound Discussion Paper
The publication Government Leaders, Safety Leaders provides a step by step model for implementing best practice in workplaces and provides examples of how employers and governments can lead by example. The leadership model has five major components:
- senior management commitment
- systems review and improvement
- accountability measures
- executive information
- incentives
View Goverment Leaders, Safety Leaders
Work health and safety resources for the public sector
Safe Work Australia leads research and analysis of work health and safety and workers' compensation in Australia and uses the findings of this research to progress national consistency in Australia.
Find out more about Safe Work Australia's research activities.
The business and procurement practices of government are far reaching. The public sector employs over 1.5 million people which is about 20 per cent of the Australian workforce. Of these, approximately 16 per cent work for the Australian Government, 73 per cent work for state government and 10 per cent for local government.
Guidance on OHS in Government Procurement has been developed to promote the adoption of safety standards in all government procurement activities.
View the Guidance on OHS in Government Procurement
Work health and safety in Australia is the responsibility of state and territory authorities. The jurisdictions also produce guidance material specifically for public sector workers in that jurisdiction.
Website links for work health and safety and workers compensation in the public sector are:
NSW: Working Together NSW
WA: Public Sector Safety
SA: Safety in the Public Sector Strategy
Victoria: Management of OHS in Local Government
Queensland: Safer and Healthier Workplaces 2007-2012
ACT: Workplace Health Strategic Plan 2008-12
Commonwealth: Comcare
Commonwealth Safety Management Forum