Notifiable incident changes in 2026: state by state
Short answer
Safe Work Australia published model changes to incident notification on 5 December 2025, but each harmonised state adopts them separately before they apply. The ACT’s own notification amendments commenced on 19 November 2025. The NT and South Australia say they have not adopted the model changes. For the other states, follow your regulator.
Automatically checked against WorkSafe ACT, NT WorkSafe and SafeWork SA , between 31 Oct 2026 and 1 Nov 2026.
What changed in the model
Safe Work Australia published model amendments to incident notification on 5 December 2025, as NT WorkSafe’s page records. A model change has no legal effect in a state until that state or territory adopts it. That’s why this page tracks states one at a time. Each regulator describes what changes in practice. The ACT, for example, lists clarified serious injuries and examples of dangerous incidents on its amendments page.
Adopted, and not yet
The table shows the position each regulator states on its own site, with the date we checked. A state not in the table hasn’t been checked against the regulator’s page yet, and the table says nothing about it. Use the state guides for the current rules.
- ACT: the ACT’s own notification amendments commenced on 19 November 2025
- NT: the regulator says the 5 December 2025 amendments have not been adopted
- SA: the regulator says the model provisions have no legal effect until adopted
Why this matters for a site
A company that works in more than one state can find that the same event is notifiable in one place and not in another. The practical answer is one record per event, with the times, the words and the photos, so a manager can apply the right state’s rules to it.
Haznote’s flag is built around that idea. It’s a prompt to look, with the state’s regulator named. The decision stays with a manager. It doesn’t track law changes for you. That’s what this page is for.
How this tracker is kept honest
Each row is checked automatically against the regulator’s own page, and the quoted passage and check date appear under it. If a check fails, this page is taken out of search indexes until it passes again.
What the regulator says
Each row shows the source’s own words, who published them and when they were last checked by script.
| Item | What it says | Source and check date |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | Key changes to incident notification requirements under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 commenced in the ACT on 19 November 2025. Source says: | WorkSafe ACT Checked 31 Oct 2026 |
| NT | The Northern Territory has not adopted the incident notification amendments published by Safe Work Australia on 5 December 2025. Source says: | NT WorkSafe Checked 1 Nov 2026 |
| SA | The 2025 model WHS notification amendments take no legal effect in South Australia until they are formally adopted into South Australian legislation. Source says: | SafeWork SA Checked 31 Oct 2026 |
Check your regulator.
Plain answers.
Does a national change apply everywhere at once?
No. A model change applies in a state once that state adopts it.
Where are the other states?
They have not been checked against the regulator’s page yet, so the table makes no claim about them.
How often is this updated?
Checks are meant to run weekly. If a check fails, the page is taken out of search indexes until it passes again.
Where this comes from.
- Incident notification amendments · WorkSafe ACT
- Incident notification · NT WorkSafe
- Workplace incident notifications · SafeWork SA
General information, not legal advice. Check the current rules with your regulator.
Keep one record per event and apply the right state’s rules to it.
Run it on one site and see the first report land in the manager’s list.