The Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety is facing charges in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court after WorkSafe Victoria filed proceedings following a serious assault on a prison officer.

The matter was listed for a filing hearing at Geelong Magistrates’ Court on 23 April 2026 — just yesterday — with details of the specific allegations yet to be fully published. What is clear is that WorkSafe has taken the step of charging a government department under workplace health and safety law over a violent incident involving a corrections officer.

This case carries significance well beyond the specifics of the incident itself.

Corrections and custodial environments are among the highest-risk workplaces for violence and aggression in Australia. Prison officers routinely face situations that would constitute serious occupational violence in any other setting. Yet historically, such incidents have been accepted as an unfortunate occupational reality rather than a preventable safety failure.

WorkSafe charging the Department of Justice signals a shift in how regulators are approaching violence as a workplace hazard. A government department — with significant resources, policies, and systems — is not exempt from its duty of care to its workers. If an incident can be shown to result from inadequate risk assessment, poor staffing levels, insufficient training, or systemic failures in the management of high-risk individuals, an employer — public or private — is accountable under WHS law.

For safety professionals working in corrections, healthcare, mental health, disability support, and any sector where worker-on-worker or client-on-worker violence is prevalent, this prosecution is worth watching closely.

The matter will return to court. We will follow it.