- Home
- Promoting health and safety
- Creating mentally healthy workplaces
- Why is work health important?
- Healthy worker
- Working together: Promoting mental health and wellbeing at work
- Mental Health and Wellbeing - Participating and thriving in our workplaces
- Supporting ability at work
- Supporting health, performance and productivity
- Flexible work
- Building a resilient workforce
- Health Benefits of Work
- Roles and responsibilities
- Duty Holders
- Comcare research program
- Health and safety representatives
- Investing in Experience: Age diversity in the workplace
- Education & training
- Creating mentally healthy workplaces
- Preventing harm
- Early intervention
- Recovery and return to work
- Recovery and rehabilitation
- Roles and responsibilities - rehabilitation
- Workplace Rehabilitation Framework
- Rehabilitation guidelines
- Barriers to Return to Work
- Working with Workplace Rehabilitation Providers
- Rehabilitation assessment
- Medical certificate of capacity
- Capability Products
- National Return to Work Survey
- Workplace rehabilitation provider fee guidance
- Returning to work
- Returning to independence
- Recovery and rehabilitation
- Claims and benefits
- Forms & publications
- Engage
- The scheme
- The SRC Act
- Legislative Instruments and Gazettal Notices under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
- Information on 2011 SRC Act amendments
- Information on 2009 SRC Act amendments
- Information on the 2007 SRCOLA Amendments
- Rehabilitation
- SRC Regulations Amendments 1988 to 1999
- SRC Regulations Amendments 2000 to 2009
- SRC Regulations Amendments from 2010
- Overview of the Comcare scheme
- The Parliamentary Injury Compensation Scheme
- The WHS Act
- The ARC Act
- Authorities we work with
- Premium paying employers
- Licensees
- Our compliance and enforcement activities
- Guidance on applying the SRC Act
- Regulatory guides
- Regulator Performance Framework
- Cost recovery
- Fraud
- Feedback
- The SRC Act
- About us
- News & media
- Training
- Events
- 2018 National WHS Forums
- Past events
- 2017 Comcare and Defence Science and Technology Research and Development Community of Practice Forum
- 2017 Comcare SA/NT WHS Networking and Information Forums
- 2017 Comcare NSW WHS Networking and Information Forums
- 2017 National WHS Forums
- 2017 Learn how to manage workplace psychological injuries
- 2017 Managing Workplace Psychological and Stress Injuries
- 2016 Comcare National Conference
- 2016 National WHS Forums
- 2016 Comcare Rehabilitation Case Manager Forum
- 2016 Chronic Pain: New Understanding, New Paradigm, New Approach
- 2015 Health and Safety Representative Forums Cairns/Townsville
- 2015 Comcare Rehabilitation Case Manager Forum
- 2015 Managing psychological injuries in the Comcare scheme
- 2015 Health and Safety Representative Forums
- 2014 Health and Safety Representative Forums
- 2014 National Conference
- 2014 Preventing psychological injury in changing workplaces forum
- Careers
Regulatory guides
Comcare’s Compliance and Enforcement Policy sets out our approach to our compliance and enforcement activities in relation to both work health and safety under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) and workplace rehabilitation under the Commonwealth Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act).
It is not within the scope of the Compliance and Enforcement Policy to cover specific aspects of our compliance and enforcement activities in detail. Comcare publishes Regulatory Guides to provide more detailed guidance for our regulated entities.
Regulatory Guides explain Comcare’s views on topics such as:
- the nature of duties and obligations owed by regulated entities
- the decision-making process for authorisations and approvals
- specific compliance tools and how we decide when to use them.
The Regulatory Guides also provide general guidelines in relation to the prosecution of offences and the acceptance of WHS undertakings under the WHS Act.
We aim to provide Regulatory Guides on a broad range of important topics for the jurisdiction and welcome feedback on their coverage, content and format.
Work Health and Safety Regulatory Guides
Legislative framework
The Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) and the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (WHS Regulations) are based on model work health and safety laws that have now been adopted in most Australian jurisdictions.
Definitions
Division 3 of Part 1 of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) (sections 4–9) defines certain words for the purposes of the WHS Act and the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (WHS Regulations) and also provides meanings for other important terms.
Health and safety duties
The core duties imposed by the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) are the ‘health and safety duties’ in Part 2 (sections 13–34), including the primary duty of care owed by persons conducting businesses or undertakings (PCBUs) towards workers and other persons.
Inspectors’ functions and powers
Division 2 of Part 9 of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) (sections 160–162) gives functions and powers to inspectors who have been appointed by Comcare under section 156.
Inspector assistance and decisions
Inspectors are given specific functions under Part 5 of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act), which relates to the interactions of persons conducting businesses or undertakings (PCBUs), health and safety representatives (HSR), health and safety committees, work groups and workers. In certain situations where parties are unable to agree on an issue, Part 5 allows them to ask Comcare to appoint an inspector to assist them to resolve the issue or to decide a matter for them.
Compliance tools
Comcare undertakes a range of compliance and enforcement activities under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) to promote compliance or to deter or respond to non-compliance. These activities may or may not involve the use of compliance tools. Compliance tools are specific measures that Comcare can use to achieve an outcome in relation to compliance. Some compliance tools are established by specific legislative provisions.
Compliance tools include notices, WHS undertakings and prosecutions.
WHS entry permit holders
Part 7 of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) provides for WHS entry permit holders to enter workplaces in certain circumstances.