In February 2006 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a new
National Reform Agenda. One of the agreed outcomes was to achieve harmonisation of OHS legislation across Australia by January 1, 2012.
The first step was the development of a draft model OHS Act, which was released for public comment. The Model
Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act 2009 was endorsed by the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC) on 11 December 2009.
December 1, 2011:
The
Model WHS Regulations have now also been endorsed, as have a number of Codes of Practice. Several more are still open for public comment.
However, while a number of jurisdictions have proceeded with the passing of the relevant Bills to implement the model WHS legislative package, the Victoria and Western Australian governments have announced that they will not be in a position to proceed on January 1, 2012.
Please go to
Update Number 7 (below) for more information.
Update 8 has links to the Model Act, Regulations and now codes.