With South Australia and Tasmania taking on the laws January 1st 2013, that leaves Victoria and Western Australia the only remaining two to come on board with harmonisation.

Workers will be provided with equal protection nationwide, safe working standards and be recognized with specific licences and training.
With the new WHS laws being imposed there's no doubt that Australia's focus is on safety and work health improvement.

Developing and implementing controlled practices and measures that can be applied to various workplace hazards and activities is the main goal of harmonisation which will directly effect the end result of injured workers in the workplace.

The idea has always been there and in most cases enforced, but with provision of guidance and information to employers the hopes of achieving safe workplaces can begin to take place.

With each state and territory developing policies and procedures relating to the WHS act, other states and territories now have a far larger pool of relevant relating information to their state. This alone is a very powerful tool.

Australia has a long road ahead of them before we reach our goal of injured workers and fatalities in the workplace reach 0,  but we are well on our way to improvement as far as having companies come into compliance with guidelines for workplace safety. Many employers are implementing new training strategies, creating new policies and procedures, reviewing their OHSMS (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems), saucing outside professional advice and much more to become compliant with WHS.

For further help on the topic visit Safe Work Australia.

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Food for thought

World Ranking: Lowest Work Related Injury & Fatality Rate (using over 200 countries)

1. Switzerland
2. Norway
3. UK
4. Sweden
5. Finland
6. Denmark
7. Australia
8. New Zealand

Information by the International Labour Organisation.

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 Australian facts

• 2010/2011 five times as many males were killed as females in Australian workplaces

• 2010/2011 had a fatality rate of 1.93 deaths per 100 000 workers, the lowest since the series began in 2003/2004

• 20010/2011 71% of the females that died were over the age of 45 years

• 2010/2011 the fatality rate of 10.54 deaths per 100 000 workers in the 65 years and over group is nearly twelve times the fatality rate of the youngest age group which recorded a rate of 0.88

• 2010/2011 28% of all worker fatalities (61 deaths) were workers employed as machinery operators and drivers
• 20% (43 deaths) were technicians and trades workers followed by labours with 18% (39 deaths)

• 2010/2011 28% (62 deaths) of the workers who died were employed in the agriculture, forestry & fishing industry, 19% (42 deaths) were employed in the transport, postal & warehousing industry and 18% (39 deaths) were employed in the Construction industry. Together these three industries accounted for 65% of all Worker fatalities in that year

Stats by SafeWork Australia