A landmark change to New South Wales workplace safety law takes effect in less than a week — and safety and legal experts warn that most organisations are still not ready for it.
From 1 July 2026, approved Codes of Practice under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) will no longer operate as advisory guidance. Under new section 26A of the Act, they become enforceable benchmarks — meaning a failure to comply with a Code can constitute a breach of the WHS Act, even if no incident or injury has occurred.
What is actually changing?
Until now, NSW Codes of Practice have functioned as practical guides — tools that helped employers understand what “reasonably practicable” looked like in a given context. Courts and regulators could reference them as evidence of industry standards, but simply not following a Code was not, by itself, a breach of the law.
From 1 July, that changes. A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must either follow the relevant approved Code of Practice, or implement alternative risk control measures that achieve an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety. If a PCBU takes the alternative approach, they will need documented evidence — verified controls and a governance trail that demonstrates their approach is genuinely as rigorous as the Code requires.
Enforcement without an incident
One of the most significant aspects of this change is that SafeWork NSW is not required to prove that a workplace incident or injury has occurred. A failure to meet the standards in an applicable Code of Practice may be sufficient on its own to establish a breach — and trigger enforcement action, improvement notices, or prosecution. This is a significant shift in enforcement risk for NSW employers, particularly those operating in high-hazard industries.
48 Codes, covering everything from falls to mental health
There are currently 48 approved Codes of Practice in NSW, covering a wide range of hazards and industries. They include Codes on managing psychosocial hazards at work, managing risks of falls at workplaces, hazardous chemicals, confined spaces, construction work, traffic management, welding processes, and work in the vicinity of overhead power lines. A full list is available at the SafeWork NSW website.
What officers need to do
The shift has direct implications for officers — directors, senior managers, and others with significant influence over the business. The due diligence obligations in section 27 of the WHS Act require officers to take reasonable steps to ensure their organisation complies with the Act, including the new section 26A requirements. That means maintaining up-to-date knowledge of relevant Codes, ensuring appropriate compliance processes are in place, and verifying those processes are actually being implemented on the ground.
The bottom line
For years, Codes of Practice have sat in a grey zone — influential but not technically binding. From 1 July, that grey zone disappears in NSW. Employers who have been treating Codes as optional reading material face a materially higher level of legal risk, and the clock is running.
