🇦🇺 Live Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS

Australian Model Work Health and Safety Act

Establishes duties for workplace health and safety across Australian jurisdictions.

View official source document

Rules extracted

Obligations decomposed

4.1x

Avg obligations per rule

🇦🇺 Australia

Jurisdiction

About this regulation

Harmonised workplace health and safety framework adopted by most Australian states and territories. Establishes a duty-based framework centred on the concept of a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), with primary duties, further duties, officer due diligence obligations, worker duties, incident notification, consultation requirements, and enforcement through inspectors and regulators.

What AuditDSS covers

Source

Regulation

Extracted

Rules

Decomposed

Obligations

4.1x

Decomposition ratio

Each rule is decomposed into an average of 4.1 atomic obligations — the smallest testable units that can be independently violated.

Fully extracted & scored

All 41 obligations have been decomposed, titled, risk-scored, and embedded for semantic matching.

Risk scoring

Every obligation in Model WHS Act is scored across independent risk dimensions:

Obligation Weight

How critical within the regulatory framework

Violation Likelihood

How often breached in practice

Enforcement Evidence

Regulator enforcement history and penalties

Cascade Dependency

How many obligations depend on this one

Regulatory details

Full title: Australian Model Work Health and Safety Act
Regulatory body: Safe Work Australia
Jurisdiction: 🇦🇺 Australia
Document type: act
Effective date: January 1, 2012
Issuing authority: Safe Work Australia
Industry: Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS
Official source: View source document ↗

Who this applies to

PCBUsofficersworkersother persons at workplaces

Key requirements

Primary duty of care: persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others
Risk management: systematic identification of hazards, assessment of risks, and implementation of control measures using the hierarchy of controls
Consultation, cooperation and coordination: duty to consult with workers and their representatives on WHS matters that affect them
Incident notification: immediate notification to the regulator of notifiable incidents including death, serious injury or illness, and dangerous incidents
Workplace facilities and general workplace management: provision of adequate facilities, first aid, emergency plans, and safe systems of work
Officer due diligence: officers of a PCBU must exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU complies with its duties and obligations

Frequently asked questions about Model WHS Act

What is Model WHS Act?

Who does Model WHS Act apply to?

Model WHS Act applies to PCBUs, officers, workers, other persons at workplaces.

How many obligations does Model WHS Act contain?

AuditDSS has decomposed Model WHS Act into 41 atomic obligations from 10 rules. Each obligation is independently testable and risk-scored.

What are the key requirements of Model WHS Act?

The key requirements include: Primary duty of care: persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others, Risk management: systematic identification of hazards, assessment of risks, and implementation of control measures using the hierarchy of controls, Consultation, cooperation and coordination: duty to consult with workers and their representatives on WHS matters that affect them, Incident notification: immediate notification to the regulator of notifiable incidents including death, serious injury or illness, and dangerous incidents, Workplace facilities and general workplace management: provision of adequate facilities, first aid, emergency plans, and safe systems of work, Officer due diligence: officers of a PCBU must exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU complies with its duties and obligations.

How can I assess my Model WHS Act compliance?

Upload your compliance policy to AuditDSS. The platform maps your document against all 41 Model WHS Act obligations using deterministic AI scoring — not checklists or LLM summaries. You get a risk-scored gap analysis showing exactly which obligations are covered, partially covered, or missing.

Which jurisdiction enforces Model WHS Act?

Model WHS Act is enforced in Australia by Safe Work Australia.

When did Model WHS Act come into effect?

Model WHS Act became effective on January 1, 2012.

What industry does Model WHS Act apply to?

Model WHS Act is primarily relevant to the Workplace Safety & WHS/OHS industry. AuditDSS covers 45 regulations in this industry sector.

Build a Model WHS Act compliance pack

Don't have a compliance policy yet? AuditDSS generates a complete compliance pack for Model WHS Act — alone or combined with other regulations your business needs. Every clause is mapped to specific obligations.

Policy

High-level commitments and governance framework covering Model WHS Act requirements.

Procedures

Step-by-step operational procedures to implement each policy commitment.

Forms & checklists

Ready-to-use forms, registers, and checklists for day-to-day compliance operations.

Multi-regulation

Combine Model WHS Act with other regulations into a single unified compliance pack for your business.

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Already have a policy? Assess it against Model WHS Act

Upload your document

Upload your compliance policy, program manual, or operational document. AuditDSS accepts any text-based document.

AI maps against 41 obligations

Your document is scored against every obligation in Model WHS Act. Each claim is mapped to the obligation tree and evaluated for coverage.

Risk-scored gap report

Receive every gap ranked by risk priority with remediation guidance, enforcement evidence, and cascade impact analysis.