WHS Obligations for Residential Builders in Tasmania

What it is

Tasmania is a model work health and safety jurisdiction. The rules that bind a residential builder sit in the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (Tas) and the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2022 (Tas), which are Statutory Rules 2022 No. 109 and took effect on 12 December 2022 when they replaced the 2012 regulations.

WorkSafe Tasmania is the regulator. The duties look like the NSW, QLD, SA, WA, ACT and NT versions, but the notifications, the licences and the penalties are Tasmanian.

The primary duty and officer due diligence

Section 19 puts the primary duty of care on the person conducting a business or undertaking. A builder must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and of anyone else the work could put at risk. That covers employees, subcontractors, labour hire workers, apprentices, the client and the neighbour over the fence.

Section 27 adds a separate personal duty on officers. A director or anyone who makes decisions affecting a substantial part of the business must exercise due diligence: keep WHS knowledge current, understand the hazards of residential construction, resource the controls and verify that the system on paper is the system on site. An officer can be prosecuted even where the company is not.

Principal contractor and the $250,000 threshold

A construction project in Tasmania is construction work where the cost of the work is $250,000 or more. Every construction project must have a principal contractor and there can only be one at any given time. On a typical residential build the head builder is it.

The threshold is the total cost of construction work on the project, not the value of any single contract. Variations count. A renovation quoted at $230,000 that lands at $265,000 has crossed the line, and the principal contractor duties applied to the whole of it.

WHS management plan and SWMS

The principal contractor must prepare a written WHS management plan before construction work starts. It names the people responsible for WHS, sets out consultation and coordination arrangements between the businesses on site, covers site security and site rules, and describes how safe work method statements are collected, monitored and reviewed. It has to be site specific and it has to reach the workers who need it.

A safe work method statement is required for every category of high risk construction work, and that obligation does not wait for the $250,000 threshold. A fall risk of more than 2 metres, work near energised electrical services, trenching deeper than 1.5 metres, demolition of load bearing elements, asbestos disturbance and roof work all trigger a SWMS on a $90,000 job just as they do on a $900,000 one.

Consultation and notifiable incidents

Consultation is a duty, not a courtesy. The builder must consult workers on hazards, on control decisions and on changes to the work, and must consult, cooperate and coordinate with the other businesses on site. On a build with six trades running at once, that is what stops the plumber cutting a hole the carpenter falls into.

Notifiable incidents, meaning a death, a serious injury or illness or a dangerous incident, must be reported to WorkSafe Tasmania immediately and the site preserved. The reporting mechanics are covered in the notifiable incidents entry.

Penalties and industrial manslaughter

The Act runs three offence categories. Category 1 is gross negligence or reckless conduct that exposes a person to a risk of death or serious injury. Category 2 is a duty failure that creates that exposure. Category 3 is a duty failure on its own. Maximum monetary penalties are indexed and differ between jurisdictions, so check the current Tasmanian figure.

Industrial manslaughter became an offence on 2 October 2024 under section 29C. Tasmania was the last jurisdiction in the country to legislate it. The corporate maximum is among the highest in Australia, though NSW sits higher at 20 million dollars. Negligent conduct by a PCBU or an officer that causes the death of a worker exposes a body corporate to 18 million dollars and an individual to 21 years imprisonment. There is no limitation period.

What to do about it

Write the WHS management plan for the actual address before any project over $250,000 starts. A plan carried across from the last job with the address swapped is the finding inspectors write up most often.

Collect a current SWMS from every subcontractor doing high risk construction work, read it against real site conditions and send it back if it does not match. Induct every worker and keep the register.

At officer level, put WHS on the agenda of every management meeting and minute what was decided. Section 27 is proved or disproved by documents, and section 29C makes those documents worth keeping.