Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is vitally important in the building and construction industry. Every worker has the right to work in a safe environment, and employers should ensure safety is their number one priority on site.

Employees have the right to stop work if there is an imminent risk to their health and safety. If this occurs, employees must follow any reasonable direction of their employer to perform other work that is safe and appropriate for them.

Federal Safety Commissioner

The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 established the role of the Federal Safety Commissioner to develop, implement and administer an OHS accreditation scheme for Australian Government building and construction work.

For more information on the Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme visit the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner website.

OHS agencies

OHS is primarily governed by state and territory laws. Links to your relevant state or territory OHS authority, and other federal bodies charged with regulating OHS, are available below.

National

• ComCare
• Safe Work Australia

ACT 

• ACT Work Safety Commissioner

NSW 

• WorkCover NSW

NT 

• NT WorkSafe

Qld 

• Queensland Workplace Health and Safety
• WorkCover Queensland

SA 

• SafeWork SA

Tas

• Workplace Standards

Vic

• WorkSafe Victoria

WA

• WorkCover Western Australia 
• WorkSafe Western Australia