Background
This consultation seeks advice and information from stakeholders on the impact of 7 proposed options to the High Risk Work (HRW) licensing framework for crane operations.
Incidents involving crane operations can be high impact and result in serious injury and death. The HRW licensing framework mitigates the risk of harms from crane incidents by providing a formal system of training, qualification and supervision to ensure the holder of a licence has achieved a minimum standard of competency and can undertake the work safely.
The options in this consultation process seek to meet the policy intent of preventing serious injury or death from crane incidents by ensuring the HRW licensing framework in the model work health and safety (WHS) laws reflects contemporary work practices and equipment. The seven options have been developed by Safe Work Australia following public consultation processes in 2022 and 2024 on options for crane licensing reforms, technical advice from the Crane Licence Working Group and subsequent deliberations and decisions by Safe Work Australia Members.
Safe Work Australia has undertaken an economic impact analysis for each of the proposed options, which will be provided to Commonwealth, State and Territories WHS ministers for their consideration and decisions.
The proposed options include:
a new HRW licence for piling rig operation
a new HRW licence for general use telehandler operation
a new HRW licence for telehandlers when used as a crane
removal of the current 3 tonne threshold from HRW licences for non-slewing mobile cranes and renaming the licence as a ‘Licence to operate an articulated mobile crane’
reducing the HRW licence threshold for VLCs from ‘10 metre tonnes or more’ to ‘1 tonne’
merging the HRW licences for tower cranes and self-erecting tower cranes into a single licence, and
a new licence for the remote operation of a tower crane.
Each option is expanded on in the Impact Analysis for Crane Licence Review and includes questions for your feedback.
Consultation process
This consultation seeks feedback from stakeholders on the impacts of each of the proposed crane licensing options listed above. We welcome submissions in relation to all, or a subset of the options, that may impact you or your organisation.
Submissions to this consultation will be used by Safe Work Australia to prepare a Regulatory Impact Statement for WHS ministers to help them decide whether to agree the proposed changes. Ultimately any changes to the model WHS Regulations are subject to agreement by a majority of WHS ministers.
Crane licence review
This consultation forms part of a suite of proposed crane licence reforms agreed by Safe Work Australia Members in March 2025, which seek to improve crane safety and ensure the licensing framework in the model WHS Regulations reflects contemporary work practices and equipment.
Additional consultations on other proposed crane licence options will be undertaken during 2026.
This flowchart outlines the sequencing and topics for each of the consultations.