Psychosocial hazards training: obligations state by state

There is no course you can buy that makes you compliant with psychosocial hazard law. There is also no jurisdiction left where you can ignore it. Both of those things are true at once, and the gap between them is where most organisations are stuck.

What the model regulations actually say

The harmonised jurisdictions inserted a psychosocial risks division into their WHS regulations. In the Commonwealth version, Division 11 of Part 3.2 defines a psychosocial hazard, defines psychosocial risk as risk to health or safety arising from a psychosocial hazard, requires PCBUs to manage psychosocial risks under the general risk management provisions, and then tells them what to consider when choosing control measures.

That last part is the operative bit. In determining control measures, a PCBU must have regard to all relevant matters including:

the duration, frequency and severity of exposure to the psychosocial hazards
how the hazards may interact or combine
the design of work, including job demands and tasks
the systems of work, including how work is managed, organised and supported
the design, layout and environmental conditions of the workplace
workplace interactions and behaviours

Read that list and notice what is missing. Nothing in it is fixed by a training module. Job demands, rostering, how work is organised, how complaints get handled: those are management decisions. This is why regulators consistently place training near the bottom of the hierarchy of controls. Training that teaches workers resilience while the workload stays impossible is not a control. It is a record of you knowing about a hazard and not fixing it.

Where the states differ

Commonwealth (Comcare scheme). Psychosocial provisions sit in the WHS Regulations, supported by a Comcare regulatory guide.

Queensland. The most prescriptive. Queensland inserted psychosocial risk provisions into its WHS Regulation in 2022 with a code of practice. Then from 1 March 2025, PCBUs must prepare and implement a written prevention plan where a risk to health and safety from sexual harassment or sex or gender-based harassment has been identified (WorkSafe Queensland). If you operate in Queensland and you have not written that plan, that is the first thing to fix.

New South Wales. NSW has had an approved Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards since May 2021, approved under section 274 of the WHS Act. NSW remade its WHS Regulation in 2025, strengthening the requirement to apply the hierarchy of control measures to psychosocial risk where elimination is not reasonably practicable.

Victoria. Victoria is not a harmonised jurisdiction. It runs the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and its own regulations. The Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (SR 103/2025) commenced on 1 December 2025, requiring employers to identify psychosocial hazards, take reasonable steps to eliminate or control the associated risks, and review controls. WorkSafe has published a psychological health compliance code alongside them (WorkSafe Victoria).

South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, ACT, NT. All have psychosocial risk provisions in their WHS regulations, drawn from the model. The wording is close enough that a single national control set works, provided you handle the Queensland plan and the Victorian code separately.

If you operate across borders, build to the highest bar and apply it everywhere. Running six variants of one programme costs more than running one good one.

What training is genuinely for

Once you accept training is a supporting control, it gets easier to design well. Three jobs, three audiences.

All workers. Recognise the hazards by name (high job demands, low control, poor support, low role clarity, poor organisational change management, inadequate reward and recognition, remote or isolated work, violence and aggression, bullying, harassment, conflict, traumatic events). Know how to raise a concern and what happens next. That is it. Do not teach workers to fix hazards they do not control.

Managers and leaders. This is where the money should go. Managers design the work. They set the demands, allocate the resources, hold the conversations and take the first report. Training here needs to cover how job design creates risk, how to consult meaningfully, how to respond to a disclosure, and how to document what they did. Most organisations underinvest here by an order of magnitude and then wonder why the worker module changed nothing. If you only fund one thing, fund psychosocial hazards training for managers and leaders.

Officers. Board and executive need enough to exercise due diligence: what the hazards are in this business, what the controls are, and whether they are working.

Getting the evidence right

An inspector will ask how you identified the hazards, what you did about them, who you consulted, and how you know it worked. Training records answer part of the third question and none of the others. Keep the risk assessment, the consultation record, the control decisions and the review dates in the same place as the completion data. The model Code of Practice sets out a four-step risk management process that makes a reasonable filing structure if you do not have one.

Common questions

Is psychosocial hazard training legally required in Australia?

No jurisdiction prescribes a named course. The duty is to provide information, training, instruction and supervision necessary to protect people from risks, so training becomes required when it is a reasonably practicable control for a risk you have identified.

Which state has the strictest psychosocial rules?

Queensland requires a written prevention plan for identified risks of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment from 1 March 2025. Victoria has standalone psychological health regulations that commenced 1 December 2025. Both go beyond the plain model regulations.

Does Victoria follow the model WHS laws?

No. Victoria has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and regulations. The Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 commenced on 1 December 2025 and there is a compliance code to go with them.

Why do regulators say training is a low-order control?

Because training tries to change how people cope with a hazard rather than removing the hazard. Regulations require you to apply the hierarchy of controls, so job redesign or workload change is expected before you rely on training alone.

Do managers need different training from workers?

Yes. Workers need to recognise hazards and know how to raise them. Managers control the things that actually cause psychosocial risk, including job design, workload, rostering and how they respond to complaints.