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How the new laws came about

The following information is published to provide industry with an overview of the changes to work health and safety laws.

The intention is for all work health and safety laws including regulations, codes of practice and guidance material to be harmonised across Australia.

Safe Work Australia is an independent statutory body established on 1 November 2009, under the Safe Work Australia Act 2008. Its primary function is to progress the model work health and safety laws in partnership with state and territory governments, employers and workers, who are represented as Safe Work Australia members.

Safe Work Australia is developing model work health and safety laws as part of an initiative of the Council of Australian Governments. This initiative demonstrates a commitment to improving the work health and safety of all Australian workers and enhancing productivity. The work health and safety laws include a model Work Health and Safety Act supported by model Regulations and model codes of practice. The Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act 2011) and the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 give effect to the model Act.

The Commonwealth and each state and territory government have agreed to harmonise their work health and safety laws so that work health and safety laws are similar in each jurisdiction. The Commonwealth, states and territories are responsible for making and enforcing their own work health and safety laws. Although there are many similarities, there are also some differences between the laws that can cause confusion in different jurisdictions.

Each jurisdiction will now go through the process of enacting legislation. The intention is to have complementary laws enacted in each jurisdiction. Minor but necessary variations may be made consistent with relevant drafting protocols and to achieve consistency with other laws and processes operating within a jurisdiction. The Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act 2011) was passed by Parliament on 26 May 2011 and the Queensland Governor in Council approved the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (WHS Regulation 2011) on 24 November 2011.

As the national model Act did not include recreational diving, a new Safety in Recreational Water Activities Act 2011 (the SRWA Act) was also passed by the Queensland Parliament on 26 May 2011 and the Safety in Recreational Water Activities Regulation 2011 approved by the Queensland Governor in Council on 24 November 2011.

Diving is a significant industry in Queensland and the SRWA Act ensures that the strict safety standard's in Queensland's diving and snorkelling industries are maintained.

Some model codes of practice have been developed and are due to be implemented at the same time as the model WHS Regulations. However, development and implementation of further model codes of practice and guidance material will continue into 2012.

Was there opportunity for public comment?

The first draft of the model WHS Act was released for public comment for six weeks in September 2009. The 480 submissions received during this period informed many of the amendments to the first draft. The amended draft was endorsed by WRMC in December 2009.

The first draft of the model WHS Act was based on the decisions of the Workplace Relations Ministers' Council (WRMC) in relation to the national review findings. View many WRMC's decisions published.

The public comment period for the draft model Work Health and Safety Regulation and draft model Codes of Practice closed on 4 April 2011 after a four-month public comment period, with more than 1300 submissions made across Australia.

There is now a current public comment process for the second stage WHS codes of practice that were released on 26 September 2011. Safe Work Australia has also released interpretive guidelines on three critical areas of the model Work Health and Safety Act and Regulation.

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