As 2025 draws to a close, there are several key developments to influence your organisation’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) priorities for the year ahead.
Victoria’s Psychosocial Hazards Framework
For those with operations in Victoria, regulations relating to the management of psychosocial hazards are effective from 1 December 2025. The Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (Vic) largely align with the regulations in this area implemented in all other jurisdictions across Australia.
Despite specific additional requirements being foreshadowed in an earlier exposure draft of the regulations, the Victorian regulations do not require the preparation of written prevention plans upon the identification of certain psychosocial hazards or bi-annual reporting to WorkSafe Victoria upon receipt of specific types of psychosocial-related complaints. However, WorkSafe Victoria’s resources include a template prevention plan and it maintains that the preparation of such a plan is an effective way to guide and record your organisation’s consideration of relevant psychosocial hazards.
Importantly, the Victorian regulations explicitly seek to constrain organisations from exclusively using information, instruction, and training as a control measure to address psychosocial risks. This is achieved by providing that information, instruction, and training can be relied upon as the sole control measure only if the hazard cannot be eliminated, or otherwise reduced, so far as is reasonably practicable, by altering the management of work, plant, systems of work, work design, and/or the workplace environment.
Further, the regulations state that if information, instruction, and training is able to be used in combination with those control measures, it must not be the predominant control measure.
Control measures used to address psychosocial risks must be installed, used and maintained. Specifically, they are required to be reviewed and revised if necessary in a number of instances including before changes are made in the workplace that are likely to change the risks associated with psychosocial hazards, when psychological injuries or psychosocial hazards are reported, or after receiving a request from a health and safety representative in certain circumstances.
A failure to effectively manage risks related to psychological health, including by complying with relevant regulations, can reflect a breach of WHS duties and result in an investigation by a WHS regulator and subsequent prosecution.
Workplace AI and Digital Surveillance
In November 2025, the Victorian Government published its response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Workplace Surveillance, indicating in‑principle support for modern, technology‑neutral laws requiring employers to justify surveillance as reasonable, necessary and proportionate, and for a legitimate purpose. The response confirms a desire to establish a clear baseline for transparency and consultation across all work settings, including remote work.
The Government supports the intent of a number of the Inquiry’s recommendations, and is giving consideration to legislative options, including the recommendations that employers:
- give at least 14 days’ written notice before commencing surveillance, specifying the methods, scope, timing, purpose of the surveillance and data handling practices;
- consult with employees before introducing or changing surveillance practices in the workplace;
- maintain and implement a written surveillance policy; and
- are prevented from using covert workplace surveillance save for in limited cases (e.g. involving suspected unlawful activity, where a Court order has been obtained and independent supervision is in place).
Additional safeguards recommended by the Inquiry, subject to the Government’s further review, consideration and engagement, include a requirement for meaningful human review of significant automated decisions, together with enhanced worker access to surveillance data and breach notifications. It is expected that the enforcement of any new laws will be vested in existing regulators, such as the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner or WorkSafe Victoria.
The use of surveillance and AI in the workplace has the potential to trigger a number of psychosocial hazards including those associated with low job control, job demands, poor organisational justice and remote work, and should already be captured in your organisation’s risk assessments, where relevant.
Together with developments in New South Wales with the Work Health and Safety Amendment (Digital Work Systems) Bill 2025 (NSW) (see our Insight here), this approach to surveillance and AI indicates a shared trajectory towards necessity, proportionality, transparency and independent oversight, which employers should anticipate will continue to be an area of regulatory focus as these reforms progress in 2026.
A recent focus on eliminating violence in some industries
Violence and aggression is a psychosocial hazard that continues to be an area of focus and concern, warranting specific intervention in some industries.
The tertiary sector
On 25 August 2025, the Australian Parliament enacted the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender‑based Violence) Act 2025 (Cth), providing for the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender‑based Violence 2025 (the Code).
The Code creates a national set of standards and requirements for higher education providers to comply with when preventing and responding to gender-based violence across study, work, social and living environments, including student accommodation. Compliance with the Code will be monitored and enforced by a new specialist Gender-based Violence Reform Branch of the Department of Education and certain enforcement provisions of the Code commence from 1 January 2026 for the majority of universities.
In addition to a higher education provider’s usual WHS duties, the Code touches upon the following seven key standards, each with specific requirements including:
- accountable leadership and governance, requiring a whole-of-organisation prevention and response plan;
- safe environments and systems, requiring the collection of specific information during engagement processes and declarations of relevant previous intimate relationships;
- knowledge and capability, requiring delivery of prevention education and training with specific content;
- safety and support, requiring risk assessments in response to disclosures and formal reports, to ensure ongoing risk management;
- safe processes, requiring accessible and anonymous reporting, multiple pathways for disclosures and outcomes of investigations to be managed and specific steps to be completed as part of investigations;
- data, evidence and impact, requiring data to be collected and reported upon in a specific manner, and available to the Secretary upon request; and
- safe student accommodation, requiring the collection of specific information during engagement processes and related risk assessments.
Higher education providers must comply with the Code. Failure to do so can result in a civil penalty of up to 200 penalty units. Record keeping obligations also apply. Importantly, non-compliance with the Code can also reflect a failure to comply with other obligations, including those relating to the provider’s approval as a higher education provider or threshold standards monitored by TEQSA.
The hospitality, retail and transport sectors in Victoria
The recently introduced Crimes Amendment (Retail, Fast Food, Hospitality and Transport Worker Harm) Bill 2025 (Vic) creates new offences for threatening, intimidating or assaulting customer-facing workers. The Bill defines an applicable customer-facing worker as including those who perform customer-facing duties for hospitality, retail or shopping centre operators or a passenger transport service provider.
It creates three new offences:
- an indictable offence, by expanding the existing offence of assault in the Crimes Act to include an assault or a threat to assault an applicable customer-facing worker in connection with the performance of their duties (punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment); and
- two summary offences, by adding offences to the Summary Offences Act relating to the use of threatening, indecent, offensive or insulting language or conduct towards applicable customer-facing workers (punishable by up to 25 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months), and the assault of customer-facing workers (punishable by up to 60 penalty units or 6 months imprisonment).
This is in addition to the Victorian Government’s commitment to introduce workplace protection orders, leveraging upon interstate and international models, with legislation to be introduced in April 2026.
The Bill has passed the Legislative Assembly and is presently before the Legislative Council for second reading. Both developments represent reform to watch as they provide employers with additional matters for consideration when managing risks associated with occupational violence.
Next steps
While the above developments reflect a continued focus by law makers and regulators on psychosocial hazards, those hazards relevant to your organisation’s operations should have already been considered and accounted for in your risk management systems. Looking to 2026, now is the time to reflect on your organisation’s management of psychosocial hazards and plan to prioritise and act upon any gaps, to ensure your organisation is well placed to meet any legislative reform in this space.
In a first for any Australian jurisdiction, Victoria will introduce significant changes to the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in the resolution of workplace sexual harassment matters.
