Victorian Current Acts

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2004 - SECT 20

    (1)     To avoid doubt, a duty imposed on a person by this Part or the regulations to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, health and safety requires the person—

        (a)     to eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable; and

        (b)     if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to reduce those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

    (2)     To avoid doubt, for the purposes of this Part and the regulations, regard must be had to the following matters in determining what is (or was at a particular time) reasonably practicable in relation to ensuring health and safety—

        (a)     the likelihood of the hazard or risk concerned eventuating;

        (b)     the degree of harm that would result if the hazard or risk eventuated;

        (c)     what the person concerned knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the hazard or risk and any ways of eliminating or reducing the hazard or risk;

        (d)     the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or reduce the hazard or risk;

        (e)     the cost of eliminating or reducing the hazard or risk.

Division 2—Main duties of employers