Safe Work Australia amendments to model WHS Act: Incident notification

Introduction and background

Safe Work Australia (SWA) has published amendments to the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act and Regulations which expand incident notification requirements, update licensing arrangements for crane operations and align regulations with current practices. This article focusses on the amendments concerning incident notification. The amendments do not become effective until adopted in the WHS Act of relevant jurisdictions.

As discussed in our earlier article, in July 2023 SWA released its consultation paper on incident notification changes and then in August 2024 it announced that Ministerial approval had been received in relation to recommendations to revise the incident reporting framework.

The amendments to the model WHS Act, which were published on 5 December 2025, extend the notification duties of persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) to ensure that notice is given to the regulator in respect of a ‘relevant occurrence’ which is defined to mean a notifiable incident, notifiable suicide or notifiable extended absence.

Notifiable incident

The definition of ‘notifiable incident’ is amended to include a ‘violent incident’ in addition to the death of a person, a serious injury or illness of a person and a dangerous incident. ‘Violent incident’ is defined to include one or more of the following that exposes a person to serious risk of psychological harm:

• A sexual assault or suspected sexual assault.
• Physical assault, including with bodily fluids.
• Deliberate deprivation of a person’s liberty without lawful authority.
• A threat of sexual or physical assault.

Changes have also been made to the definitions of:

• ‘Serious injury or illness’ to include:
  • Fracture of the pelvis, the skull or other facial bones; another serious bone fracture; a serious crush injury; a serious brain injury or illness resulting from a significant or repeated blows, knock or other shock to the person’s head.
  • The reference to an injury or illness for which the person seeks medical treatment within 48 hours after exposure to a substance has been refined to include reference to a ‘relevant registered health professional’ which is a defined term and includes a person in the medical, nursing or paramedicine professions who is registered under the relevant legislation.
• ‘Dangerous incident’ to include electrical explosion or an arc flash explosion; a mobile plant incident; and a serious fall.

Notifiable extended absence

The obligation to notify in respect of a ‘notifiable extended absence’ arises where the absence is reasonably attributable to a physical or psychological injury or illness arising from the conduct of the business or undertaking.

The SWA Explanatory Memorandum to the amendments states that “…[t]he term ‘reasonably attributable’ is not defined in the Act, however, it is intended that there will need to be a causal link between the absence and the physical injury or illness. Whether there is a causal link between the absence and the physical injury or illness will depend on the relevant circumstances. The term ‘arising from the conduct of a business or undertaking’ is also not defined in the Act, however it is intended that a PCBU should consider all relevant available information when assessing if the injury or illness is arising from the conduct of a business or undertaking”.

Timeframes for notification and site preservation

Notice is required to be given to the regulator immediately after becoming aware of a notifiable incident or notifiable suicide and within 14 days in respect of a notifiable extended absence.

The site preservation obligation has also been amended to include the requirement to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that “…evidence of the occurrence, including electronic and digital records and witness details”, is preserved.

New duty to notify persons with corresponding duty

A new section 39A is inserted which requires:

• A person who is required to notify the regulator under section 38 must, immediately on becoming aware of the relevant occurrence, ensure that a person with a corresponding duty to preserve the site is notified so far as is reasonably practicable.
• A person with a duty to preserve a site under section 39 must, immediately after becoming aware of the relevant occurrence activating the duty, ensure a person with a corresponding duty to notify is notified of the relevant occurrence, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Relevant definitions

A ‘notifiable extended absence’ is defined as an absence of a worker that is reasonably attributable to a physical or psychological injury or illness arising from the conduct of a business or undertaking where the worker has been absent from work for 15 or more consecutive days or anticipates, on the basis of a medical practitioner’s opinion, being absent from work for 15 consecutive days or more, and notifies the PCBU of that.

A ‘notifiable suicide’ is defined as “…a death by suicide, or suspected suicide, or an attempted, or suspected attempted, suicide:

• Of a worker:
  • That occurs at a time when the worker is not on leave and would ordinarily be working.     
  • That occurs at, or in the immediate vicinity of, the worker’s workplace or another workplace managed or controlled by the same person conducting the business or undertaking for which the worker works.     
  • That occurs in relevant accommodation.
  • That makes use of one or more things available to the worker because of the worker’s work or at the worker’s workplace.
  • That occurs when the worker is wearing the worker’s usual work uniform at a time or in a place the worker would not ordinarily be expected to wear the uniform.
  • Who had or has a psychological injury or illness arising from the conduct of the business or undertaking.
  • Who is, or has been, exposed to frequent, prolonged or severe psychosocial hazards because of the worker’s work or at the worker’s workplace.
  • That occurs in circumstances where the person conducting the business or undertaking for which the worker works has notice of a link with the worker’s work or workplace, or is otherwise aware of a link with the worker’s work or workplace.
• Of a person other than a worker that takes place at a workplace where suicide is a reasonably foreseeable risk due to the nature of the workplace and the presence of one or more physical hazards that could be used in a suicide.”

‘Mobile plant’ is defined to mean “…plant designed to move or be moved, either autonomously or under the direct or remote control of an operator.

‘Mobile plant incident’ “…means an incident in which:

• Mobile plant overturns or partially overturns
• Mobile plant collides with a person or thing
• A person is pinned to the ground or another thing by mobile plant
• A person is ejected from mobile plant
• Mobile plant malfunctions
• Mobile plant, ordinarily controlled directly or remotely by an operator, moves while not under control”.

‘Serious fall’ “means a person falling:

• From one level to a lower level
• Into a hole, trench, pit or void
• Into a body of water.
• Onto a dangerous surface or object.”

SWA has provided a fact sheet about notification duties under the model WHS laws and the types of incidents that fall within these categories which is available here.

These amendments continue to underscore the need for PCBUs to be vigilant about identification of psychosocial hazards and management of psychosocial risks and to have in place robust incident reporting and notification procedures and appropriate training in that regard to ensure notification obligations are able to be complied with.