WorkSafe has advised that it will be conducting proactive inspections across the horticulture, viticulture, and rural contracting sectors between 1 July and 30 September 2025.
Focus areas:
The inspections will primarily target safety around vehicles with a secondary focus on the management of hazardous substances, including:
Proper storage of hazardous substances
- Maintenance of inventories
- Availability and use of safety data sheets.
It is recommended you use the Hazardous Substances Calculator to create an inventory and work out what key requirements you need to meet, based on the hazardous substances you use.
Inspectors will also engage with PCBUs (Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking) to understand how health and safety information is communicated to and from workers on site.
What to expect:
- Businesses will be selected from WorkSafe’s internal database, with a preference for those not previously engaged
- No unannounced inspections will occur unless a business is unresponsive or unwilling to engage.
WorkSafe has emphasised that these visits are not formal audits, but part of broader engagement to better understand health and safety practices across the sector. However, if inspectors identify unmanaged risks that breach health and safety legislation, the following actions may occur depending on the severity:
- Verbal advice to address the issue
- Improvement notice requiring formal action
- Prohibition notice, if there is an immediate risk to life — in which case the issue must be resolved while the inspector is on site.
Approximately 400 businesses will be visited nationwide.