Major Reforms To The Model Work Health And Safety Framework And Incident Notification Duties

On 5 December 2025, Safe Work Australia released significant amendments to the national model Work Health and Safety Act (Model WHS Act), with the major changes relating to the incident notification requirements.

Key amendments include:

• expanding the incident notification obligations for PCBUs by introducing new notification duties for extended absences, violent incidents and work-related suicide and attempted suicide;
• broadening definitions for serious injuries or illnesses and dangerous incidents, covering a wider range of scenarios such as bone fractures and certain head injuries;
• updating licensing conditions for crane operations; and
• clarifying other obligations, including the personal protective equipment requirements.

To assist businesses interpreting the new provisions, Safe Work Australia has published the Notifiable incidents, extended absences and suicides handbook (Handbook), a detailed 65-page guide with practical examples to help persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) meet their WHS obligations.

Importantly, these changes will only take legal effect once adopted by the individual States and Territories signed up to the harmonised work health and safety (WHS) regime (i.e. all States and Territories apart from Victoria). We anticipate this process will take at least a year or two, due to the need for WHS regulators to be able to resource and administer the new requirements.

Expanded incident notification requirements

Under the Model Work Health and Safety Legislation Amendment (Incident Notification) 2025, PCBUs must now notify their WHS regulator where there has been a 'relevant occurrence' rather than a 'notifiable incident'. A relevant occurrence includes 'notifiable incidents' (now in an expanded form) and introduces two additional categories:

• notifiable extended absences (of 15 or more consecutive days); and
• notifiable suicides (which also includes attempted suicides).

Further amendments include expanding the duty to preserve an incident site to also include the preservation of any relevant evidence (including electronic and digital records as well as witness details).

What is included as a 'notifiable incident'?

The amendments have increased the notification burden on PCBUs by expanding the types of conduct captured by existing notification requirements as well as introducing a new notifiable category – a 'violent incident'. The full list of notifiable incidents requires PCBUs to notify their WHS regulator where there has been a:

• death of a person;
• serious injury or illness of a person;
• dangerous incident; and
• violent incident (new category).

A 'violent incident' is defined to mean when the conduct of a business or undertaking exposes a person to a serious risk of psychological harm through one of more of the following:

• a sexual assault (or suspected sexual assault);
• a physical assault (including with bodily fluids);
• the deliberate and unlawful deprivation of a person's liberty without lawful authority; or
• a threat of sexual or physical assault where there is a reasonable belief that at the time of making the threat, the person intends to and has the means to carry out the threat.

Previously, PCBUs only needed to report these incidents if they resulted in the serious injury or illness of a person requiring immediate treatment or death i.e. physical harm. This new category is intended to capture psychological harm as well.

Although briefly referenced in the Handbook, just how the obligation to report a 'violent incident' will interact with other legislation in some jurisdictions relating to privacy and identification of alleged victims and perpetrators of sexual assault is yet to be addressed, with the Handbook simply stating that a PCBU is not required to provide sensitive details about the incident when providing notification to a WHS regulator.

Other key changes include expanded definitions for:

• 'serious injury or illness of a person': which is clarified to be an objective test which applies regardless of whether or not treatment is available. The scope of injuries captured under this term has been expanded and now includes:
  • a fracture of the pelvis, the skull or other facial bones;
  • another serious bone fracture;
  • a serious crush injury; and
  • a serious brain injury or illness resulting from a significant blow, knock or shock, or repeated blows, knocks or other shocks to the person's head;
  • the amputation of a body part;
  • a serious eye injury;
  • a serious burn;
  • the separation of skin from an underlying tissue;
  • a spinal injury (which is clarified to include a fracture of 1 or more vertebrae, the loss of a bodily function; serious lacerations); or
  • an injury or illness which requires medical treatment 48 hours after exposure to a substance from a relevant registered health professional.

as well as previously covered injuries including:

• 'dangerous incident': which now includes a mobile plant incident and a serious fall of a person. A mobile plant incident includes where the mobile plant overturns, collides with a person, ejects a person, malfunctions or moves while not under control. A serious fall does not impose any height threshold but may consider how or where the person falls to determine severity. In relation to uncontrolled fires, implosions or explosions, the amendments clarify that, electrical explosions and arc flash explosions are now also classified as dangerous incidents.

Notifiable extended absence

The amendments introduce a new notification requirement for 'notifiable extended absences' that are reasonably attributable to a physical or psychological injury or illness arising from the conduct of a business or undertaking. Notification is required when a worker has been absent for 15 or more consecutive days or the worker anticipates being absent for that period, based on a medical practitioner's opinion. Unlike other incidents that require immediate notification, PCBUs will have 14 days from becoming aware of the extended absence to notify their WHS regulator.

This amendment is similar to the requirement under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), which requires notification where a medical practitioner considers the injury or illness likely to prevent the worker from performing normal work for at least 10 days following an injury or illness. However, the Model WHS Act provisions do not intend to capture situations where a worker can undertake alternative or different duties (i.e. returning on light duties) or has changed their hours.

Unhelpfully, the term 'reasonably attributable' is not defined in the legislation, however the explanatory memorandum to the amendments notes that there will need to be causal link between the absence and the physical injury or illness. Additionally, in determining whether an extended absence arises out of the conduct of a business or undertaking, a PCBU is not required to conduct an investigation (or make inquiries of family, friends or the person who is absent from work) for the purpose of determining whether the absence is notifiable. Instead, the PCBU must just consider all relevant information available to it in order to make the determination.

Notifiable suicide

The Model WHS Act also introduces a new incident notification requirement for PCBUs to notify the regulator about suicide-related events, addressing previous uncertainty. A 'notifiable suicide' is defined to include a death by suicide or suspected suicide as well as attempted suicides and suspected attempted suicides.

PCBUs must notify their WHS regulator where there is a link between the worker's suicide or attempted suicide and the business or undertaking, based on any of the following criteria:

• if it occurs at a time when the worker is not on leave and would ordinarily be working;
• if it occurs at, or in the immediate vicinity of, the worker's workplace or another workplace managed or controlled by the same PCBU for which the worker works;
• if it occurs in relevant accommodation;
• if it makes use of one or more things available to the worker because of the worker's work or at the worker's workplace;
• if it 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;
• if the worker had or has a psychological injury or illness arising from the conduct of the business or undertaking; or
• if the worker is, or has been, exposed to frequent, prolonged or severe psychosocial hazards because of the worker's work or workplace; or
• in circumstances where the PCBU has notice, or is otherwise aware, of a link with the worker's work or workplace.

There is also a notification obligation where a person other than a worker dies by (suspected) suicide or attempts suicide at the workplace, where suicide is a reasonably foreseeable risk due to the nature of the workplace or the presence of physical hazards that could be used in a suicide.

Notably, the test that applies to other 'relevant occurrences' (i.e. notifiable incidents and notifiable extended absences) that the matter 'arise from the conduct of the business or undertaking' does not apply to notifiable suicides. Notification only arises if one of the prescribed circumstances identified above exists.

Finally, the Model WHS Act includes a new duty on PCBUs and persons with control or management of a workplace to notify each other of a 'relevant occurrence'.

Further personal protective equipment requirements

Safe Work Australia has included a number of miscellaneous amendments to the model WHS Regulations through the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations (Miscellaneous Amendments) 2025.

A key change is the broadening the scope of the duty on PCBUs relating to the provision and use of personal protective equipment (PPE). The amended clause will apply wherever PPE is used to minimise a WHS risk, rather than being limited to situations where PPE is required due to the application of the hierarchy of control measures. This amendment was made in response to a judgment in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission which adopted a narrow interpretation of the PPE clause.

Amendments to crane licencing provisions

Safe Work Australia has also introduced changes to the national model crane licencing provisions through the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations (Crane Licences) Amendment 2024, aimed at strengthening qualifications requirements for crane licensees.

Key changes include:

• removing the previous "encompassment" provisions, meaning a slewing mobile crane licence no longer permits the licensees to operate all lower-level cranes. This addresses safety concerns that the skills required to operate one class of cranes do not necessarily translate to other class types; and
• introducing a 'dogging' qualification as a prerequisite for most crane license classes. This will ensure that all high-risk work crane licence holders have completed the relevant dogging VET course.

Businesses should review their current licensing and training arrangements to ensure compliance with these updated requirements.

Key takeaways

The changes to the incident notification (soon to be known as relevant occurrence notification) obligations under the amended Model WHS Act provisions are particularly significant. The burden placed on PCBUs by these new provisions will be substantial as many more incidents and matters will be reportable to WHS regulators. Regulators have been taking a tougher stance in relation to delays or failures to report in recent years, with more and more charges and statutory notices being issued to PCBUs who breach notification requirements and these amendments will only increase regulators' focus on such infractions.

The introduction of the new suicide (and attempted suicide)-related notification obligations, extended absence and violent incident notifiable obligations and the expansion of what constitutes a serious illness or injury and dangerous incident will require updates to incident notification protocols as well as greater coordination between a PCBU's safety and human resources teams to ensure all relevant matters are captured and considered for notification to a WHS regulator.

Only adding to the complexity is how these amendments will come into force. As mentioned at the start of this article, the changes to the Model WHS Act will not take legal effect in a jurisdiction until they have been adopted into local law by that jurisdiction. Practically, it is expected that states and territories will implement these changes at different times. Some jurisdictions may choose not to adopt, or only adopt some of, the changes. This staggered approach will create an administrative challenge for businesses, especially those with workers and operations across different jurisdictions. Those with responsibility for reporting incidents within an organisation should be supported and adequately resourced through the change process and those with governance roles in an organisation should take steps to verify their PCBU is up to date with the changes as and when they come into force.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.