A Safework Australia’s Model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work has landed in March 2026. It reaches a lot further than healthcare and laboratories, and it changes what reasonably practicable looks like for every PCBU in the country.
Until March, an Australian construction firm asking a simple question, do biological hazards apply to my work, had to piece an answer together. Some guidance came from hospital infection-control material. Some came from agricultural authorities. Some came from environmental health. None of it joined up into a cohesive guide.
The new Code of Practice changes that. Safe Work Australia released the Model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work in March 2026. It is the first national Code in this country dedicated to biological hazards. Inspectors will reach for it. So will courts. PCBUs in every industry should now read it.
What the biological hazards code actually covers
The Code defines biological hazards broadly. They are substances and agents of biological origin that pose risks to human health. The list goes well beyond the obvious. It includes viruses, bacteria, parasites, prions, and some fungi (including mould). It also includes allergens, irritants, and toxins, such as organic dust, sap, and venom.
Workers can be exposed three ways. Through the work itself, like a vet treating a sick animal. Through the environment, like an outdoor crew working in mosquito-prone country. Or through the community, like a colleague bringing influenza to the office.
The Code applies whenever any of these are foreseeable which, in practice, is almost every workplace.
The document cover duties, consultation, and incident response and provides structured checklists, advice on ventilation, cleaning, hygiene, vaccination, and PPE.
Why it carries legal weight?
Approved Codes of Practice in Australia are not simply advice. They are frameworks courts may chose to use when assessing whether a duty holder did what was reasonably practicable.
Approved Codes can be admissible in WHS proceedings. Courts may rely on them as evidence of what was known about a hazard. and certainly Inspectors may cite them when issuing improvement and prohibition notices.
While its well accepted that a PCBU can comply by another method, other methods must meet an equivalent or higher standard. So the Code sets the visible benchmark. Departures from it should be defensible.
Adoption depends on the jurisdiction. Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and the ACT, and the Commonwealth typically follow the standard model-Code approval pattern. Victoria runs its own compliance codes under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Western Australia became a WHS jurisdiction when the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 commenced in 2022, but its codes follow separate state arrangements. Anyone relying on the new Code should check the position with the local regulator first.
The reach is broader than people think
When most PCBUs hear biological hazards, they picture a hospital ward or a research bench. Appendix H of the Biological Hazards Code tells a different story.
The appendix lists abattoir workers, sheep shearers, plumbers, sewage and wastewater workers, recycling and waste workers, cleaners, school teachers, early childhood educators, hospitality workers, hairdressers, and tattooists. It also lists construction and demolition workers, miners, forestry workers, agricultural workers, postal workers, security guards, and police.
The practical effect is significant. A principal contractor on a site with contaminated soil now has a national Code that speaks to the risk. A recycling operator handling untreated waste has the same. So does a manufacturer generating organic dust.
The Code does not invent new duties for these PCBUs. It clarifies what was always required, by putting the reasonably practicable benchmark in writing.
Six baseline controls
The Code names six baseline measures appropriate to most workplaces:
- Good air quality, through ventilation and air cleaning.
- Routine cleaning and proper waste management.
- Hygiene training, including hand cleaning.
- Vaccination for vaccine-preventable diseases relevant to the workplace.
- Training on hazards and the controls in place.
- Suitable personal protective equipment.
The order is deliberate. PPE comes last, not first. The Code reminds readers that PPE depends on human behaviour and supervision. It should supplement higher-order controls, not replace them. That ordering matters in any matter that turns on the hierarchy of control.
The notification trap
Biological hazards may trigger WHS notification in four kinds of event.
- First, an injury or illness needing medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance. The Code’s worked example: a healthcare worker without hepatitis B immunity gets a small amount of blood in the eye while treating a patient.
- Second, an infection reliably attributable to work. The work has to involve handling microorganisms, treating or caring for a person, contact with human blood or body substances, or handling animals or animal biological material.
- Third, a specified zoonosis caught at work with animals, hides, skins, wool, hair, carcasses, or waste. The Code names seven: Q fever, anthrax, leptospirosis, brucellosis, Hendra virus, avian influenza, and psittacosis.
- Fourth, an uncontrolled escape, spillage, or leakage of a substance (including laboratory cell cultures) that exposes a person to immediate or imminent serious risk. Site preservation rules apply.
Two practical points sit beneath these triggers. WHS notification runs independently of any reporting duty under public health or biosecurity law. Meeting one does not satisfy the other. And the threshold itself triggers the duty to notify. It does not matter whether other authorities are already involved.
What it does well, and where it stops short
The breadth of scope is the Code’s strongest feature. By treating biological hazards as a cross-industry workplace issue, it closes a gap that earlier sector-specific material never filled in unified form.
The emphasis on baseline controls is the second strength. Ventilation, cleaning, hygiene, and vaccination are not new ideas. Treating them as a baseline, applied before specific risks are quantified, is a useful corrective to risk processes that stall while waiting for perfect information.
The Code also handles external intelligence well. It directs duty holders to authoritative sources: health authorities, agriculture and biosecurity agencies, WHS regulators, and industry groups issuing emerging-disease alerts. That reflects how risk management actually works today, not the dated picture of a static reference document refreshed every few years.
Some limits are worth noting. Cross-references to Australian Standards are sparse. The text names only one Standard, AS/NZS 1715:2009 for respiratory fit testing. Practitioners working in laboratories, clinical waste, ventilation design, and respiratory protection will need to read the Code alongside the relevant Standards, not in place of them.
Quantitative exposure assessment is necessarily light. Few biological hazards have established workplace exposure standards. Where airborne organic dusts or bioaerosols are present at scale, occupational hygiene assessment remains the practical route. The science on long-term effects of biological exposures is still evolving. Expect future updates.
What to do now
PCBUs that already manage biological hazards have a structured way to audit coverage. Appendix A to the code is the natural starting point. Where gaps appear, the Code’s language and references make them easier to close.
PCBUs that have not formally considered biological hazards now have a practical starting point. Most workplaces already do one or two of the baseline controls in some form. The work is to make them deliberate, documented, and reviewable.
Three priorities deserve attention now. The workforce should be cross-checked against Appendix H, including contractors and labour-hire workers. Incident response procedures should incorporate the four biological-hazard notification triggers, alongside the existing physical-injury triggers. Consultation arrangements should be checked, with explicit involvement of health and safety representatives where they exist.
A dedicated national Code on Biological hazards at work changes what reasonably practicable looks like in every WHS conversation that touches biological risk. The PCBUs that integrate it now will likely be better placed than those that wait for the first matter to turn on its provisions.
Safetysure advises PCBUs across high-risk industries on integrating new WHS guidance into existing management systems. Organisations weighing how the new Code fits with current arrangements are welcome to be in touch through the Safetysure website.
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Download the Model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work