Legislation we administer

SafeWork SA administers more than 30 South Australian acts and regulations relating to workplace, health and safety and industrial relations.

Supporting legislative change

Engineered stone ban

The financial year began with the introduction of a ban on engineered stone.

The ban prohibits the manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs from 1 July 2024.

Businesses that fail to follow the new work health and safety laws could face fines of up to $42,000.

Individual workers or managers who flout the laws could receive fines of up to $8,400.

South Australia implemented the ban in line with other states and territories to protect workers from the risk of fatal lung disease.

Engineered stone can be safely used once installed, so long as it remains undisturbed and no work is carried out to remove, repair or modify it as this could generate silica dust.

There is no requirement to remove engineered stone that is already installed.

Porcelain products are excluded from the ban along with finished engineered stone products such as jewellery, garden ornaments sculptures and kitchen sinks which do not require processing or modification.

Industrial Manslaughter

The start of July also saw the introduction of tough new laws to make industrial manslaughter a criminal offence and put employers on notice that the most serious health and safety breaches carry severe penalties.

Employers now face up to 20 years in prison or fines of up to $18 million if they are found to have caused the death of a worker through a reckless or grossly negligent breach of health and safety.

A person commits industrial manslaughter if:

• they have a health and safety duty under the Work Health and Safety Act
• they engage in conduct that breaches that duty
• the conduct causes the death of an individual to whom that duty is owed, and
• the person engages in the conduct with gross negligence or is reckless as to the risk to an individual of death or serious injury or illness.

The new laws do not impose any additional health and safety obligations on businesses or workers. Instead, they ensure that if a worker is killed through a breach of existing laws then severe penalties are available.

Making industrial manslaughter a criminal offence brings South Australia into line with other states and territories across Australia.

Explosives Act

A major overhaul of South Australia’s explosives legislation passed Parliament in September 2024, updating a bill first adopted in 1936.

The Explosives Act 2024 modernises and streamlines the state’s explosives legislation and creates consistency with other Australian jurisdictions.

The 2024 Act provides a new licensing framework for explosives which is more streamlined and consistent with national licensing frameworks.

It will replace the Explosives Act 1936, which has long been considered by industry to be out of touch with contemporary standards and practices and inconsistent with other jurisdictions.

The new Act passed parliament in September and will come into operation once regulations and supporting legislative documents have been developed.

In South Australia, the explosives industry impacts a wide variety of industries including transport, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, demolition, entertainment, pyrotechnics, rocketry and policing.

The new legislation balances the promotion of business interests, while continuing to maintain the safety and security of the South Australian public.

Portable Long Service Leave Bill

The Portable Long Service Leave Bill 2024 also passed parliament in September, extending portable long service leave to the community services sector in South Australia from October 2025.