Psychological health is no longer separate from workplace safety. Across Australia, psychosocial laws have made it clear that psychosocial hazards must be managed the same as physical hazards. For businesses operating across multiple states and territories, the challenge isn’t whether obligations exist, it’s how those obligations differ, where they sit in law, and who is responsible for what.
A National Shift: Psychosocial Laws Are Now Explicit
Historically, psychological health was addressed indirectly through general duty-of-care provisions. Stress, bullying and burnout were often treated as individual or HR issues, dealt with after harm occurred. That approach is no longer acceptable under psychosocial laws. Today:
- Psychosocial laws are explicitly recognised across every Australian state and territory
- Regulators expect proactive risk management
- Codes of practice and regulations clearly set out how risks must be identified, controlled, and reviewed
Psychosocial risk management is now firmly embedded in core WHS compliance. It cannot be met through optional wellbeing initiatives.
The Numbers
Injuries from psychosocial hazards are the fastest-growing and most expensive category of workplace harm in the country. Safe Work Australia’s most recent statistics record 17,600 serious workers’ compensation claims for mental health conditions. That’s 12 percent of all serious claims, and a 161 percent increase over a decade. The severity profile explains the regulatory shift:
- Median time lost: 35.7 working weeks per serious mental health claim, against 7.4 weeks across all serious claims
- Median compensation: $67,400 per claim, against $16,300 across all serious claims
- Return to work: roughly half of workers with a psychological claim return within a year, compared with the overwhelming majority of workers with physical injuries
What Counts as a Psychosocial Hazard
A common failure is treating “stress” as a hazard under psychosocial laws. Stress is what happens to your workers when a hazard goes uncontrolled.
The codes and psychosocial laws adopted across Australia identify hazards. These include high or unreasonable job demands, low job control, poor support, lack of role clarity, poorly managed organisational change, inadequate reward and recognition, traumatic events or material, remote or isolated work, violence and aggression, bullying and harassment, job insecurity, and work-related fatigue.
How the Rules Differ by Jurisdiction
What They Have in Common
The Commonwealth, NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory operate psychosocial laws under the Work Health and Safety (WHS) model. Victoria and Western Australia sit outside it, under their own laws. Across all of them, psychosocial hazards are defined as hazards arising from:
- work design and workload
- management practices
- workplace environment
- workplace interactions and behaviours
Businesses must identify psychosocial hazards, assess the associated risks, implement effective control measures, and review those controls regularly. Worker consultation is mandatory at each stage.
Queensland
Since 1 March 2025, Queensland’s psychosocial laws under section 55H of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 has required a PCBU to prepare and implement a written prevention plan wherever a risk of sexual harassment or sex or gender-based harassment is identified. The plan must:
- be in writing
- state each identified risk
- identify the control measures for each risk
- identify the matters considered in selecting those controls
- describe the consultation undertaken with workers
- be readily accessible and understandable to workers
- set out the procedure for dealing with reports of unsafe conduct
Tasmania, ACT, and the Northern Territory
These have approved Codes of Practice that directly support national psychosocial laws. In practice, the Code is the primary reference for training, audits and regulator engagement.
New South Wales
NSW’s psychosocial laws have changed recently enough that many businesses have not adjusted for it. Section 26A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) commenced on 1 July 2026.
Before that date, SafeWork NSW had to establish that you failed to eliminate or minimise a risk so far as was reasonably practicable. The Code of Practice was one piece of evidence in that argument. Since that date, the Code sets the standard. Falling short of it is a breach in its own right, and nobody needs to have been harmed for an inspector to act.
You can still manage a risk your own way. But you now carry the burden of showing that your approach is equal to or better than the Code, and that reasoning needs to exist in writing before an inspector asks for it.
Enforcement of psychosocial laws no longer depends on SafeWork NSW alone. Since 1 March 2026, a registered union can bring proceedings itself where the regulator declines to act. A decision by the regulator not to prosecute is no longer the end of your risk.
You are also far more likely to be looked at. SafeWork NSW added 51 inspectors in March 2026, 20 of them working solely on psychosocial hazards. Enforcement is no longer driven by complaints alone: those inspectors arrive unannounced, and they need neither a complaint nor an injury to find you in breach.
South Australia
Psychosocial laws entered the SA Regulations in December 2023, while the national model code had no legal status in the state. That gap closed on 19 February 2026, when SafeWork SA’s codes on Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work and on Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment commenced.
An approved code is admissible in proceedings as evidence of what is known about a hazard and what was reasonably practicable to do about it. The standard you will be measured against in South Australia is now published, specific, and able to be cited against you.
Victoria
Victoria’s psychosocial laws sit outside the framework. Rather than amending its regulations, the state introduced stand-alone Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, backed by a Compliance Code that WorkSafe inspectors audit against. Psychological health is regulated in its own right, and duties are owed to employees, independent contractors, and labour hire workers.
The Victorian Regulations also restrict what counts as an acceptable control. Where a risk cannot be eliminated, employers must reduce it by changing the work itself: what the job consists of, the workload, the hours and rosters, how much say people have over their own tasks, who they report to, the environment they work in, and the equipment they work with.
Training is where that restriction bites. In Victoria you can only fall back on information, instruction and training where changing the work is not reasonably practicable, and training can never be your main control in a combined approach. Everywhere else in the country, a training-led response is weak. In Victoria it is non-compliant.
Western Australia
Like Victoria, Western Australia’s psychosocial laws also operate differently. WA relies primarily on its Code of Practice: Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace, sitting alongside the Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA). The Code is the main reference point for identifying hazards, implementing controls, and demonstrating what is “reasonably practicable”.
What Is a PCBU, an Officer and a Worker?
Psychosocial laws and obligations start with the question of who the law applies to.
PCBU: Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking
A PCBU is the organisation or person running the business, including companies, partnerships, sole traders, government agencies and not-for-profits. The PCBU holds the primary duty of care and must:
- set up and run work in a way that minimises psychosocial risks
- provide safe systems of work
- consult with workers
- implement and maintain control measures
- monitor conditions
- review controls
Importantly, this duty cannot be delegated.
Officer
An officer is a senior decision-maker, such as a director, company secretary, CEO or senior executive who influences how the business is managed. Officers have a personal duty of due diligence, and must:
- stay informed about psychological risks in the business
- ensure appropriate resources and processes are in place
- verify that psychosocial risks are being identified and controlled
- ensure reporting and assurance are effective
When an officer receives a report they must actively question, test and verify the business’ controls. Their duty is personal and separate from the company’s, and an officer can be prosecuted even where the business is not.
Worker
A worker includes employees, contractors, labour hire workers, apprentices and volunteers. Workers must take reasonable care of their own psychological health, avoid adversely affecting the psychological health of others, follow reasonable instructions, and participate in consultation and reporting. Psychosocial safety relies on active participation from workers.
What Does "Reasonably Practicable" Look Like Now?
The consistent fact across all states and territories is that resilience is not a control measure. The hierarchy of control applies to psychosocial hazards exactly as it applies to a fall from height.
Elimination comes first: can the hazard be designed out of the work? If not, the risk must be reduced by altering the work itself; by changing rosters, workloads, staffing levels, escalation paths, decision-making authority, customer interaction design.
Administrative controls and individual support sit at the bottom of that hierarchy, and that is where most organisations still concentrate their effort. A resilience workshop, a wellbeing app and an EAP referral are legitimate only as supplements, they do not replace your duty.
Rule of Thumb for National Businesses
If your business has locations across multiple states, aim to build your businesses’ psychosocial law responses to Queensland and Victoria’s legislation. Queensland sets the highest standard on documentation, while Victoria has the highest on controls. From there:
- Training and education: lead with the relevant Code or Compliance Code, and remember that training supports controls rather than replacing them
- Audits and risk registers: anchor findings to the Regulations, and map your controls against the applicable Code
- Incident management: treat psychosocial incidents with the same seriousness as physical safety events
- Documentation: assume you will be asked to produce evidence at short notice, and build the record as you go rather than reconstructing it after a complaint
The Bottom Line
Psychosocial laws are established, enforceable and actively regulated across Australia. The legal structures still differ but the expectation that businesses must set up and run work in a way that protects psychological health, remains the same.
Codes are becoming enforceable, inspectorates are growing, and the cases now being decided make clear that everyday management processes are in scope. Organisations that take this seriously don’t just reduce legal risk, they build safer, healthier and more sustainable workplaces.
FAQs
Do These Obligations Apply to Small Businesses?
Yes. The psychosocial duty applies to every PCBU regardless of size. Small businesses can scale their systems down, but they cannot opt out of them.
Can an Inspector Act if Nobody Has Been Harmed?
Yes. Inspectors do not require proof of injury.
Can a Director Be Prosecuted Personally?
Yes. The due diligence duty belongs to the officer, not the company or anyone else.
References
National
- Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 — data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/insights/key-whs-statistics-australia/latest-release
- Safe Work Australia, Model Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work — safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/model-code-practice-managing-psychosocial-hazards-work
New South Wales
- Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), section 26A, as inserted by the Industrial Relations and Other Legislation Amendment (Workplace Protections) Act 2025 (NSW)
- SafeWork NSW, Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work: Code of Practice
Queensland
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), section 55H, as amended by the Work Health and Safety (Sexual Harassment) Amendment Regulation 2024 (Qld)
- WorkSafe Queensland, Sexual Harassment and Sex or Gender-Based Harassment — worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/mental-health/Psychosocial-hazards/sexual-harassment-and-sex-or-gender-based-harassment
South Australia
- Work Health and Safety (Psychosocial Risks) Amendment Regulations 2023 (SA)
- SafeWork SA, Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice, February 2026 — safework.sa.gov.au
- SafeWork SA, Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment Code of Practice, February 2026
Victoria
- Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (Vic)
- WorkSafe Victoria, Psychological Health Regulations: Frequently Asked Questions — worksafe.vic.gov.au/psychological-health-regulations-frequently-asked-questions
Western Australia
- Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA)
- WorkSafe WA, Code of Practice: Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace
