On Monday 19 October 2026, Safe Work Australia (‘SWA’) released the results from its 2026 Best Practice Review of the model Work Health and Safety laws. Those results, including their recommendations, are contained in a final report.
Of particular importance to our Navigating Workplace Wellness project is how it intends to develop a strategy on harmful behaviours.
SWA’s observations
In the final report, SWA recognised that the psychosocial regulations support a “systems-based approach to managing mental health risks in a workplace”, recognising that risks may stem from:
‘organisational practices’,
‘power imbalances’, and
‘workplace culture’,
as well as from individual behaviours.
In our article Bullying – It’s not just ‘personal’ we recommended that, as a control measure, PCBUs consider improving the communication styles used within their workplaces (and we provided a link to our webinars on the topic).
However, SWA is taking the issue much further, noting that a person carrying on a business or undertaking (‘a PCBU’), shouldn’t just concentrate on the individual behaviours in question, but must look at the ‘bigger picture’ when managing this type of psychosocial risk.
Unfortunately, this part of the report doesn’t go into much detail about how those three areas of organisational behaviour can exacerbate the risks of harmful workplace behaviours, but it does note:
the need for specific regulations to cover certain types of psychosocial hazards,
how:
the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach towards psychosocial hazards fails to recognise the different risk profiles, causes and controls for hazards,
the list of common psychosocial hazards needs to be expanded, and
matters such as racism and discrimination need to be managed better, and
the degree of harm that witnessing certain behaviours in the workplace can have on others not directly involved in those behaviours.
SWA’s intended course of action
In addition, the report explains that SWA intends to tackle this issue by developing a strategy on harmful behaviours that:
amends section 19(3) to clarify that the PCBU’s primary duty includes the management of risks arising from harmful workplace behaviours,
develops a new model regulation to regulate:
access to facilities, including female designated toilets, and
prevention of work-related violence and harassment, including gender-related violence,
supports a greater understanding of how the model WHS laws apply to harmful workplace behaviours,
strengthens the evidence base on the management of harmful workplace behaviours, including how system level controls can prevent risks across different industries, and
provides transparency and consistency of enforcement approach to support duty holders to manage risks.
So, the message is clear, harmful workplace behaviours will not be tolerated.