First Toolbox. The model psych Code has teeth this year and NSW is about to start naming repeat offenders.
Safe Work Australia: notifiable incident duties to expand under amended model WHS Act. Published 5 December 2025, the amended Act extends notification to dangerous incidents involving mobile plant and falls, violent incidents (including sexual assault), work-related suicide and attempted suicide, and worker absences of 15+ calendar days. Doesn’t apply until your jurisdiction adopts — but the model has moved. Safe Work Australia →
South Australia's psychosocial Code of Practice commenced 19 February 2026. SafeWork SA gazetted the Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code, approved under s.274 of the WHS Act 2012 (SA). SA's version names 17 hazards, three more than the SWA model, with expanded coverage of bullying, sexual harassment, and aggression, plus case studies. SafeWork SA →
Safe Work Australia model Code: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work is now the baseline. 14 named hazard categories, plus what "reasonably practicable" looks like for each. State adoption is uneven. Check whether your jurisdiction has formally approved it before assuming coverage. Safe Work Australia →
NSW now publishing names of high-risk and repeat-offender duty holders. From 1 January 2026, SafeWork NSW publishes the names of duty holders in its High-Risk Workplaces and Repeat Offenders program on its website under new legislative reporting requirements. The list is updated every six months. Reputational risk, not just fines. SafeWork NSW →
National: Workplace Exposure Limits (WEL) replace Workplace Exposure Standards (WES) from 1 December 2026. WHS ministers have agreed to a new harmonised WEL list: limit values added, removed or changed based on updated health evidence, plus a new table for non-threshold genotoxic carcinogens. Transition period closes 30 November 2026. If your air-monitoring program was built against the old WES list, it needs a controls review now, not in November. Safe Work Australia →
Queensland: "high risk plant" now prescribed by regulation, not the Act. From 29 March 2026 the Work Health and Safety (High Risk Plant) Amendment Regulation 2026 moved the definition of high risk plant out of the WHS Act and into regulation, with lift-registration carve-outs for class 1a buildings and certain stairlifts. Practical effect: future changes to the list will move faster and be easier to miss. WorkSafe Queensland →
The model Code on Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work is the one to watch this year, because adoption is uneven and the gap between "the Code exists" and "the Code is enforced in my state" is exactly where audit findings live.
Here's what's interesting. The Code names 14 hazard categories: job demands, low control, poor support, role clarity, change management, organisational justice, traumatic events, remote work, physical environment, violence, bullying, harassment, conflict, reward and recognition. Most psychosocial registers I see in the wild name three or four of those. That's the gap regulators are pointing at.
The reading that's going to land hardest: this is a positive duty, not a "manage if reported" duty. And it applies everywhere except Victoria. NSW has its s.26A, SA's Code just commenced, QLD's regs have been in for years, and WA, ACT, NT, Tasmania and the Commonwealth all carry the same obligation under the harmonised framework. Regulators that have been quietly educative for the last 18 months are starting to move. From 1 January 2026 NSW publishes names of duty holders in its High-Risk Workplaces and Repeat Offenders program, refreshed every six months. Reputational risk, not just fines.
If I were running a check this month I'd ask three things. When was the psychosocial register last reviewed properly, with worker consultation, not just dated and re-signed. Are all 14 named hazards represented, even the ones nobody likes raising (conflict, harassment, organisational justice). And for each control listed, is there evidence in the last 90 days that it's working. If the answer to any of those is "good question," that's the gap.
Two consultations closed late May. SafeWork NSW’s 2026–27 prevention priorities closed 31 May, and WorkSafe VIC’s draft Code of Claimants’ Rights closed 27 May. Watch for the NSW Annual Regulatory Statement and the final VIC Code mid-year.
SA’s psychosocial Code names 17 hazards — three more than the SWA model. First meaningful state divergence from the model framework in this space; watch whether others follow.
Build a psychosocial risk register draft in five minutes.
This produces a starting-draft register for the workplace you describe: 14 rows, one per named hazard in the SWA Code, with ratings, typical controls, gaps, owner roles, and review frequencies. Still needs worker consultation and a check against your state's adopted Code. Paste into Claude or ChatGPT, fill the brackets, edit from there.
You are an Australian HSEQ adviser specialising in psychosocial risk under the SWA model Code: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work.
Draft a psychosocial risk register for:
- Industry: [INDUSTRY]
- Jurisdiction: [STATE]
- Headcount: [NUMBER]
- Site type: [DESCRIPTION]
- Known worker concerns: [TEXT or "none reported"]
Output a table, one row per named hazard in the SWA Code (job demands, low control, poor support, role clarity, change management, reward/recognition, organisational justice, traumatic events, remote work, physical environment, violence/aggression, bullying, harassment, conflict). For each row include: plausible source (generic, no real names), risk rating with rationale, two typical controls, two gaps to investigate, owner role, review frequency.
Flag uncertainty rather than guessing. This is a starting draft to validate against worker consultation and site conditions, not legal advice, not a finished register.
Tip: Run it twice with different headcounts to see which controls scale and which don't.
Psychosocial Risk Register & Framework.
Pre-built. The done version of what the prompt above produces. All 14 SWA hazards mapped against typical controls, evidence prompts, owner roles, and review frequencies. Built against the SWA model Code, editable in .xlsx and .docx. Use it as your starting register, or run it against the one you've already got and find the gaps.
Pearl Construction Group Pty Ltd. Fined $150,000 in Melbourne County Court after a 23-year-old worker suffered fatal head injuries falling three metres through an unprotected stair void at a Glen Waverley site in September 2022. Sentenced 22 April 2026. WorkSafe VIC →
Customconstruction Pty Ltd. Fined $100,000 in the NSW District Court after a worker fell approximately 3.8 metres from a two-storey house under construction at Avalon Beach. Media release 8 April 2026. SafeWork NSW →
Acon Projects Pty Ltd and Adrian Conditsis. Fined $480,000 and $20,000 respectively in the NSW District Court after a worker fell about three metres from a residential site at Carlton, NSW. Sentenced 1 May 2026. SafeWork NSW →
About HSEque. I built HSEque to cut hours out of safety documentation for everyone who touches it: the subbie writing a SWMS, the builder reviewing it, the HSEQ team keeping registers and frameworks current. Site-specific, Australian, generated in minutes, edited from there. The Toolbox is the free monthly companion: no sell, just what regulators are signalling.
General industry commentary. Not legal advice.
The Toolbox covers Australian WHS/OHS developments at a general level for time-poor HSEQ professionals. Nothing in this newsletter is legal advice, professional advice, or a recommendation to take any specific action in your workplace. Always get jurisdiction- and site-specific guidance before acting. Sources for every claim are linked inline.
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