Safe Work Australia is undertaking a Best Practice Review of the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act and model WHS Regulations to consider best practice approaches in the context of strengthening and maintaining harmonisation of WHS laws.
About the Review
In September 2024, WHS ministers asked Safe Work Australia to undertake the Best Practice Review to ensure the model WHS laws provide the highest level of protection for workers.
The Best Practice Review will examine Australia’s WHS laws, assess jurisdictional deviations from the model WHS legal framework, and consider relevant reviews and inquiries to develop recommendations on:
whether the model WHS Act and model WHS Regulations incorporate a best practice approach that achieves the object of the model Work Health & Safety Act 2011 (s3), and
processes to maintain and strengthen harmonisation.
The consultation process
In September 2025, we published a discussion paper which marked the start of our formal consultation period which ran until November 2025. During that time, we travelled to every capital city and 2 regional centres for in-person meetings with a wide range of stakeholders, we also received 1055 written stakeholder responses, of which 118 were written submissions and the rest were survey responses from workers, health and safety representations and employers.
We continued to meet with interested stakeholders until March 2026. In total, over 100 in-person and online meetings have been held with workers, employers, industry associations, unions, regulators, government agencies, academics, WHS professionals, community organisations, individuals, and families affected by workplace fatalities and serious injuries have been held.
In March 2026, we published a consultation summary which identifies key themes and issues raised during the consultation process.
Next steps
⌛August 2026: A final report, outlining our findings and recommendations for the Best Practice Review will be provided to WHS ministers for their consideration.
⌛After a decision from WHS ministers, we will publish the final report and outline what comes next for implementing the recommendations.
Resources
Published submissions we received through public our consultation
Contact us
If you have any questions about the Best Practice Review, please email bestpracticereview@swa.gov.au.