• What law applies
• Understanding hazards and risks
• What is risk management
• The five steps
  • Preparing for the five steps
  • Step 1 - Look for the hazards
  • Step 2 - Decide who might be harmed and how
  • Step 3 - Decide on control measures
  • Step 4 - Put controls in place
  • Step 5 - Review the controls
• Occupational health and safety auditing

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What law applies

In order to understand the workplace health and safety requirements for risk management, and your obligations under the law you must consider and understand relevant legislation and codes of practice.

General health and safety obligations
What you must do
Specific legislation for risk management

General health and safety obligations

To understand your obligations and safety requirements you must be familiar with the:

• Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 1 MB), which imposes obligations on people at workplaces to ensure workplace health and safety.
• The Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 (PDF, 1.6 MB) describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which cause injury, illness or death.
• Codes of practice, which are designed to give practical advice about ways to manage exposure to risks common to industry.

Every Queensland employer must have workers' compensation insurance. Most employers insure with WorkCover Queensland, while a small number of large organisations have their own insurance. This insurance coverage ensures that employees injured at work receive financial support.

What you must do

It is a requirement of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 that risks must be assessed and control measures then implemented and reviewed to prevent or minimise exposure to the risks.

If the regulation describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the regulation says. If there is a code of practice that describes how to prevent or minimise a risk at your workplace you must do what the code says or adopt and follow another way that gives the same level of protection against the risk.

If there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk at your workplace you must choose an appropriate way to manage exposure to the risk. People must, where there is no regulation or code of practice about a risk, take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence against the risk.

Specific legislation for risk management

Under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, to properly manage exposure to risks, a person must:

1. Look for the hazards.
2. Determine who might be harmed and how.
3. Decide on control measures.
4. Put controls in place.
5. Review the controls.

Control measures should be implemented in the following order:

1. get rid of the harm or prevent the risk
2. if this is not possible:
   • replace with something less harmful
   • separate people from the harm
   • change work processes or the physical work environment, e.g. by redesigning work, plant, equipment, components or premises
   • apply administrative arrangements, e.g. limit entry or time spent in a hazardous area
   • use personal protective equipment.