Australian Work Health and Safety Principles
Model WHS laws and Victoria's OHS Act, the duties of providers and support workers, consultation, the Code of Practice, and where the NDIS Practice Standards fit.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Disability Support Workers
Key learning points
- Describe the general duties of providers (PCBUs) and workers under Australian WHS law
- Recognise that Victoria's OHS Act 2004 uses different terms but imposes similar duties
- Explain what the hazardous manual tasks Code of Practice is and how it is used
- Understand consultation and why a support worker's observations matter
- Explain how a participant's manual handling plan and the NDIS Practice Standards relate to WHS duties
One set of duties across most of the country
Safe Work Australia developed the model Work Health and Safety Act and Regulations, and every state and territory except Victoria has adopted them. Victoria has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, which uses the words employer and employee rather than PCBU and worker, but the substance — a duty to provide a safe workplace so far as is reasonably practicable, and a duty on workers to take reasonable care — is very similar. Each jurisdiction has its own regulator: SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, WorkSafe WA, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe Tasmania, WorkSafe ACT and NT WorkSafe.
Who does what
- Safe Work Australia
- Writes the model WHS laws and the model Code of Practice for hazardous manual tasks; it is not a regulator
- State and territory regulators
- Enforce WHS law, publish guidance, investigate serious incidents
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
- Regulates NDIS providers through the Practice Standards, Code of Conduct and incident reporting; it expects safe supports but is not a WHS regulator
- Your provider (the PCBU)
- Holds the primary duty for your health and safety at work, including in participants' homes and in the community
- You (the worker)
- Take reasonable care, follow reasonable instructions and procedures, use equipment as trained, and report
What a provider, as a PCBU, is generally expected to do
- Provide and maintain a working environment that is safe, so far as is reasonably practicable — including where the workplace is someone's home
- Identify hazardous manual tasks in each participant's supports and put risk controls in place
- Make sure suitable equipment is available and maintained — hoists, slings, slide sheets, ramps, vehicle restraints
- Provide information, training, instruction and supervision, including on the specific equipment you will use
- Consult workers about health and safety matters that affect them
- Have systems for reporting hazards, incidents, near misses and equipment faults, and act on them
Your duties as a worker
- Take reasonable care for your own health and safety
- Take reasonable care that your actions do not harm others — participants, their families, colleagues and the public
- Comply with reasonable instructions given by your provider
- Co-operate with reasonable policies and procedures, including each participant's manual handling plan
- Use equipment correctly and only when trained and authorised
- Report hazards, incidents, near misses, early symptoms and faulty equipment
A participant's home is still a workplace
When you provide paid support in a participant's home, that home is a workplace under WHS law for the time you are there. Your provider's duties and your duties still apply. What changes is that neither of you controls the environment the way a facility would, which is why assessment before services start, planning before each task and prompt reporting matter even more.
The Code of Practice
Safe Work Australia publishes the model Code of Practice: Hazardous Manual Tasks, and most jurisdictions have approved it under their own laws. A code of practice is practical guidance on how to meet legal duties. It is not itself a law, but courts and regulators can use it as evidence of what is known about a hazard and what is reasonably practicable. It sets out the risk factors, the risk management process and the hierarchy of controls that this course follows.
Manual handling plans and the NDIS Practice Standards
Registered NDIS providers must meet the NDIS Practice Standards, which include a safe environment, risk management, support planning and the safe use of equipment. In practice, a provider's WHS duty reaches you through two documents: the organisation's safe work procedures, and the participant's manual handling plan — sometimes called a mobility plan or transfer plan — usually written by an occupational therapist or physiotherapist. The plan tells you the method, the equipment, the sling type and size, the number of workers, and what the participant does for themselves.
What this course is not
This course is general education about manual handling. It is not the NDIS Worker Orientation Module, it is not an NDIS Worker Screening Check, and it has not been endorsed by the NDIS Commission or any regulator. WHS requirements, regulators and codes can differ between states, territories, providers and individual homes. Follow your provider's procedures, which always take precedence, and treat nothing here as legal advice.
Consultation
Consultation means workers get a genuine say in decisions that affect their safety. Support workers see the problems first — a bathroom door that will not clear the shower commode, a hoist battery that never holds charge, a participant whose transfers have become harder over a fortnight. Telling your coordinator or raising it at a team meeting is part of the safety system, not a complaint. Health and safety representatives, where your provider has them, exist to carry these issues forward.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the plan says one thing, the family says another
You arrive for an in-home shift. The participant's manual handling plan specifies a transfer board and slide sheet for getting into the car. His mother says the board is fiddly and asks you to lift him under the arms with her, the way she has always done it.
What is the appropriate response?
Reveal the explanation
Follow the plan, not the request. Under-arm lifts are widely discouraged because they can injure the participant's shoulders and skin and they overload the worker. Explain politely that you have to use the method in his plan, use the board and slide sheet, and let your coordinator know the family finds the technique difficult so the OT can review it or offer training to the family. Document the conversation and the transfer you performed.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which statement about WHS law in Australia is correct?
Victoria is the exception to the model laws, but its duties are similar. State and territory WHS regulators enforce WHS law; the NDIS Commission regulates providers through the Practice Standards.
2. When you provide paid support in a participant's private home, that home is:
A workplace is wherever work is carried out. The provider cannot control a home like a facility, which makes assessment, planning and reporting more important, not less.
3. The model Code of Practice: Hazardous Manual Tasks is best described as:
The Code is approved practical guidance published by Safe Work Australia. It contains no weight limits and is not itself a law, but it shows what is known and expected.
4. A family member asks you to use a manual under-arm lift instead of the transfer board in the participant's plan. You should:
The manual handling plan is how the provider's WHS duty reaches you. Decline the unsafe technique, provide the planned support and escalate the family's concern.
Sources and further reading
The framework this module summarises, from the regulators themselves. Your workplace procedures always take precedence.
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks — The national code the state and territory regulators adopt or mirror.
- Safe Work Australia — Lifting, pushing and pulling (manual tasks)
- Safe Work Australia — Model WHS laws
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — NDIS Practice Standards — Provider obligations; this course is not the NDIS Worker Orientation Module.