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Australia

In Australia, states and territories have the responsibility of drafting and implementing safety laws. Fortunately the individual laws on industrial safety and their requirements are very similar. The relevant legislation is based on the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Act. This defines the obligations and duty of care of people with various responsibilities. Numerous regulations and codes of practice for the various safety areas fall under the state OH&S legislation.

The regulations are not legally binding.

Neither are the codes of conduct legally binding in general. However, they are frequently consulted as a benchmark in the relevant legal system when it is necessary to assess whether sufficient measures were taken to design a safe workplace. For this reason, failure to comply with codes of conduct can have very serious consequences.

Regulations sometimes refer to the codes of conduct, as well as the Australian standards drafted by an independent organisation called "Standards Australia". However, with a few notable exceptions, Australian standards are not legally binding. Again, courts frequently consult them when it is necessary to assess whether sufficient measures were taken to reduce risks.

The most important machinery safety standard in Australia is AS4024.1 for example. Although compliance is not mandatory, it does represent an excellent defence in case of an action relating to neglect of duty of care. Failure to comply, on the other hand, may have considerable legal consequences.

Many Australian standards are based on international standards, particularly:
Standards issued by the International Electro technical Commission (IEC),European standards (EN),British standards (BS, nowadays often in the form of combined BS EN standards) or Standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Standards Australia's official policy is to adopt international standards (ISO or IEC) where possible in the interests of international alignment. In contrast, US American standards (ANSI standards) rarely correspond to Australian, ISO or EN standards and are of little importance in Australia.