Mine safety laws for contractors in Australia, state by state

In Australia a mining contractor is a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) with its own primary duty of care under work health and safety law, and on a mine it carries extra duties set by the state. In NSW, Queensland and Western Australia the contractor must have its own safety and health management plan in place with the mine before it starts work, and NSW and WA also let it formally work under the mine’s system instead.

The detail differs by state. NSW and WA build their mine rules on top of the national model WHS laws. Queensland has its own two mining Acts, one for coal and one for everything else. This piece covers those three states. Victoria has not adopted the model laws, according to Safe Work Australia, and is not covered here.

The model WHS Act: the contractor’s own duty

Safe Work Australia keeps the model WHS Act, the model WHS Regulations and model codes of practice. They only have legal force once a jurisdiction adopts them, and “Commonwealth and state and territory regulators oversee and enforce the laws in their jurisdictions” (Safe Work Australia, model WHS laws).

Three sections of the model WHS Act (version dated 5 December 2025) shape a contractor’s position on any site where it applies:

• Section 19, primary duty of care. A PCBU “must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of” workers it engages and workers “whose activities in carrying out work are influenced or directed by the person”. It must also ensure “that the health and safety of other persons is not put at risk from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking.”
• Section 16, shared duties. “More than 1 person can concurrently have the same duty.” Each keeps responsibility for its own duty and must discharge it “to the extent to which the person has the capacity to influence and control the matter”.
• Section 46, consultation between duty holders. Each person with a duty on the same matter “must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, co-operate and co-ordinate activities with all other persons who have a duty in relation to the same matter.”

Section 47 adds a duty to consult your own workers who are “directly affected by a matter relating to work health or safety”. On a mine, the mine operator, the contractor and any subcontractors can share duties over the same haul roads, plant and people. Sections 16 and 46 mean none of them can hand the whole duty to another.

Mine safety laws by state: the table

Note on Queensland: RSHQ describes itself as “the independent safety and health regulator for Queensland’s mining, quarrying, explosives (including fireworks), petroleum and gas industries” and administers both mining Acts. Contractor duties on Queensland mines sit in those Acts, so the table cites them.

New South Wales

The NSW Resources Regulator says the general WHS Act 2011 and the WHS Regulation 2025 apply “to all workplaces in NSW, including mines”. The mine laws sit on top. Section 4(1) of the WHS (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013 says the Act “is to be construed with and as if it formed part of the WHS Act”.

Under the 2022 Regulation, the mine operator “must establish a safety management system” (s 18). Where a contractor is working or likely to work on site, that system must cover “a contractor health and safety management plan prepared by the contractor under section 26” and “how the contractor health and safety management plan will be integrated with the safety management system” (s 19(f)).

Section 26(1) is the gate. A contractor “must not carry out mining operations” unless it has prepared the plan, given a copy to the operator, “obtained written notice from the operator that the operator has reviewed the plan and reasonably believes the plan is consistent with the safety management system”, and, as far as reasonably practicable, implemented it. The alternative in s 26(2) is to review “the relevant parts of the safety management system” and give the operator written notice that it is consistent with the contractor’s own arrangements.

The Regulation’s definition of contractor leaves out the mine operator, businesses that only deliver, service office equipment, clean offices or cater, and anyone excluded by a regulator’s order published in the Gazette. On a plain reading, a load and haul, drill and blast or crushing contractor working on the mine falls inside it.

Queensland

Queensland splits mines between two Acts. The Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 “applies to mines, other than coal mines”. The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 covers coal. The mining and quarrying Act defines a contractor to include “a person contracted to carry out work at a mine” and “a person contracted to provide workers to a mine, including, for example, a labour hire agency.”

The contractor duties are nearly word for word the same (s 40 of the mining and quarrying Act, s 43 of the coal Act). A contractor must comply with the Act and with “the mine’s safety and health management system” as far as it relates to its work. It must also ensure no work is done until it “has given the site senior executive for the mine a safety and health management plan” and “has made all changes” the site senior executive requires to integrate that plan with the mine’s system.

Two further duties bite at mobilisation. The contractor, and every worker it engages or arranges, must be “inducted in the mine’s safety and health management system” and have “received training about hazards and risks at the mine” before working. The contractor must also ensure “the fitness for use of plant at the mine is not adversely affected” by its work.

The plan itself is defined narrowly: it “identifies the work to be undertaken” and “states how the contractor intends to comply with the contractor’s obligations under this section.” On the mine’s side, the site senior executive must develop a system “for all persons at the mine including contractors”, review contractor plans and provide for “adequate supervision and monitoring of contractors at the mine” (s 39).

Western Australia

In WA the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 “covers all workplaces within the natural jurisdiction of Western Australia, including mines”, and the WHS (Mines) Regulations 2022 apply “to mining and mineral exploration operations”. “The WorkSafe Commissioner is the regulator” under the Act (WorkSafe WA).

The Mines Regulations (version as at 15 May 2026) follow the NSW pattern with some differences. The mine operator must establish a mine safety management system (r 621). The operator must give the contractor “all relevant information and access to the mine” to identify risks (r 625B), and the contractor must give the operator the information it needs (r 625C).

Regulation 625D(1) is the gate. A contractor “must not carry out a mining operation at a mine unless” it either:

• prepares a health and safety management plan, gives a copy to the operator, “is given written notice from the mine operator accepting the plan” and “has the resources and capability to implement the plan”; or
• reviews the relevant parts of the mine safety management system, gives the operator written notice, and “has the resources and capability to implement” those parts.

WA also spells out two points. The operator “must not allow a contractor to carry out a mining operation at the mine in contravention of” r 625D(1). And a note to the regulation says: “Adopting the mine safety management system for the mine does not reduce the contractor’s duty under section 19 of the Act.” The maximum fine for breaching r 625D(1) is $7,000 for an individual and $35,000 for a body corporate.

Before you mobilise: a contractor checklist

For the tax side of running plant on an Australian mine, see fuel tax credits for mining contractors.

Common questions

Does a mining contractor need its own safety management plan in Australia?

In NSW, Queensland and WA, yes, or a formal alternative. NSW and WA let a contractor instead review the mine’s safety management system and give the operator written notice. Queensland requires a safety and health management plan given to the site senior executive before work starts.

Who regulates mine safety in each state?

In NSW, the NSW Resources Regulator. In Queensland, Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), which administers the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999. In WA, the WorkSafe Commissioner under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020.

Does working under the mine’s safety system remove the contractor’s own duty?

No. Under the model WHS Act each duty holder keeps its own duty even when others share it. The WA regulations say so directly: adopting the mine safety management system does not reduce the contractor’s duty under section 19 of the Act.

Sources

1. Model Work Health and Safety Act, Safe Work Australia, version dated 5 December 2025.
2. Model WHS laws, Safe Work Australia.
3. Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013 No 54, NSW legislation, current version from 15 December 2023.
4. Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022, NSW legislation, current version from 13 December 2024.
5. WHS legislation, NSW Resources Regulator.
6. Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999, Queensland legislation, reprint current from 1 July 2026.
7. Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999, Queensland legislation, reprint current from 1 July 2026.
8. What we do, Resources Safety and Health Queensland.
9. Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022, WA legislation, consolidated version as at 15 May 2026.
10. Work health and safety laws, WorkSafe WA.