Safe Work Australia is a national policy body responsible for the development and evaluation of the model WHS laws (the model laws), which are comprised of:
The model laws are amended from time to time. Safe Work Australia publishes all historical versions of the model WHS Act and model WHS Regulations. This includes all amending instruments and associated explanatory materials and all point-in-time compilations of the model WHS Act and Regulations and associated explanatory materials.
See the Amendments to the model WHS laws page for all historical versions of the model laws.
The model laws have been developed for implementation by all jurisdictions (that is the Commonwealth, states and territories), however they do not apply in a jurisdiction unless the jurisdiction has separately taken action to implement the laws as their own WHS laws.
The model laws have been implemented in all jurisdictions except Victoria.
Each jurisdiction has a WHS regulator that:
- enforces WHS laws
- inspects workplaces
- gives advice.