Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) The main object of
this Act is to provide for a balanced and nationally consistent framework to
secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces by —
(a)
protecting workers and other persons against harm to their health, safety and
welfare through the elimination or minimisation of risks arising from work;
and
(b)
providing for fair and effective workplace representation, consultation,
cooperation and issue resolution in relation to work health and safety; and
(c)
fostering cooperation and consultation between, and providing for the
participation of, the following persons in the formulation and implementation
of work health and safety standards to current levels of technical knowledge
and development and encouraging those persons to take a constructive role in
promoting improvements in work health and safety practices —
(i)
workers;
(ii)
persons conducting businesses or undertakings;
(iii)
unions;
(iv)
employer organisations;
and
(d)
promoting the provision of advice, information, education and training in
relation to work health and safety; and
(e)
securing compliance with this Act through effective and appropriate compliance
and enforcement measures; and
(f)
ensuring appropriate scrutiny and review of actions taken by persons
exercising powers and performing functions under this Act; and
(g)
providing a framework for continuous improvement and progressively higher
standards of work health and safety; and
(h)
providing for the formulation of policies, and for the coordination of the
administration of laws, relating to work health and safety; and
(i)
maintaining and strengthening the national harmonisation
of laws relating to work health and safety and to facilitate a consistent
national approach to work health and safety in the State.
(2) In furthering
subsection (1)(a), regard must be had to the principle that workers and other
persons should be given the highest level of protection against harm to their
health, safety and welfare from hazards and risks arising from work as is
reasonably practicable.
Notes for this section:
1. This Act is based
on the Model Work Health and Safety Bill (21 March 2016 version) prepared for,
and approved by, the Council of Australian Governments and contains
modifications of that model Bill for this State.
2. The numbering of
Parts, Divisions and sections in this Act generally (but not always)
corresponds to the numbering of Parts, Divisions and sections in the model
Bill. To facilitate this correspondence —
(a) some
Part, Division and section numbers are included in this Act although they are
not used for this State; and
(b)
alphanumeric numbers are used in this Act for some sections that are inserted
for this State.
3. Alphanumeric
numbering used in the model Bill is also used in this Act.