Safe Work Australia has updated the WHS prosecutions dashboard to reflect the latest publicly available data from 2023. It is now available on Safe Work Australia’s interactive data website, Our Data. Your Stories.
The prosecutions repository provides national information on criminal prosecutions for breaching WHS laws or regulations since 1 January 2020. Developed in response to the 2018 Senate inquiry report They never came home – the framework surrounding the prevention, investigation and prosecution of industrial deaths in Australia, the prosecutions data helps inform decision-making to improve WHS outcomes.
Key findings from the 2023 data include:
- 293 prosecutions were recorded for breaching WHS Acts and/or regulations in Australia in 2023
- 15 per cent (45) prosecutions involved a fatal injury
- Victoria had the largest number of prosecutions in 2023 with 132, making up 45 per cent of prosecutions nationally. This compared with only 70 in Queensland and 65 in NSW. The other jurisdictions had fewer than 10 prosecutions for the year (Western Australia 8; South Australia 7; Northern Territory 5; Tasmania 6)