Australia’s workplace safety laws have failed to keep pace with the evidence on gendered violence prevention. In 2026 we have the opportunity to become world leaders in this space again, writes Sapphire Parsons.
If over a million women are exposed to hazards causing severe mental health impacts and potential suicide, we would expect our model safety laws to say something about this. They do not.
On 17 March 2026, Safe Work Australia released its Consultation Summary for the Best Practice Review of Model WHS Laws. WHS Regulations were consistently called out for failing to address workplace safety hazards disproportionately faced by women, particularly gendered violence (which encompasses bullying and harassment).
Stakeholders are calling for laws that explicitly treat harmful behaviour, including harassment, intersecting forms of discrimination, and victimisation as the safety hazards they are.
In 2015, under the Turnbull Government, Australia led the world by adopting Change the Story, the first evidence-based national framework to prevent violence against women. The central premise is simple: intersectional equality, both at home and at work, improves safety outcomes.
Our safety laws have not caught up.
Over a million impacted workers, mostly women
Every year, one in five workers experience sexual harassment at work, and one in 10 experience bullying and with approximately 15 million workers in Australia, that is over a million people experiencing behavioural harm each year.
Women face double the risk and make up almost 60 per cent of serious claims for exposure to psychosocial hazards. Workers who experience discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, religion or disability face even higher rates of violence and harassment at work.
The consequences are severe. Exposure causes serious psychological harm and, in the worst cases, suicide. The economic cost is approximately $30 billion per year with an average cost to business, per case, of $17,000 to $24,000.
The complaints-based system is barely used. Less than one per cent of affected workers complain to peak bodies. In 2024–25, there were just 626 complaints to the AHRC under the Sex Discrimination Act, and 883 applications to the Fair Work Commission for orders to stop bullying the year prior.
“The current system places much of the onus on women to make a complaint…This complaint-based system clearly is not working, and women know it”,” says Abbey Kendall, CEO of Working Women’s Centre Australia.
Why reporting forms and training cannot solve this
The instinct is to introduce reporting forms or training programs. On their own, these do not prevent harm.
A review of 30 years of US workplace training found it had not functioned as a prevention tool. This is not surprising.
A reporting form cannot solve bullying or harassment when the person being reported is still the manager.
“The framework should recognise the structural factors that contribute to gender-based harassment and discrimination at work,” the Working With Women’s Alliance said in 2025.
62.3% of bullying perpetrators are supervisors. 78% of CEOs and 70% of heads of business are men.
Whilst not all men commit acts of behavioural harm, leadership imbalances are not only markers of gender inequality but they are risk factors for harm.
The answer is structural change. International research says that we already know how to reduce harassment at work, and it starts with hiring and promoting more women.
Boosting women’s workforce participation could add $128 billion to the Australian economy.
“There needs to be structural change in our workplaces if they are to be safe places for all,” says Renee Bianchi, President of Australian Women Lawyers.
A call for stronger safety laws
As a victim-survivor, in May 2024, I wrote a public letter to Prime Minister Albanese calling for stronger safety laws to prevent work-related gendered violence, with gender equity central to achieving this. The collective advocacy I led following that letter resulted in the first recommendation in Australian history to regulate work-related gendered violence under safety laws, recommendation 7(f) in the Unlocking the Prevention Potential Report.
Last year, with the support of Casey Guilmartin and in collaboration with 33 women’s peak bodies, national and global experts, I led a National Joint Submission to Safe Work Australia’s Best Practice Review of Model WHS Laws, one of the largest coalitions of its kind in Australian history. The Submission included a Global Best Practice Note from Professor Rachel Cox (ILO Expert) and a Foreword from Elena Campbell (Expert Panel Member), calling for model WHS laws and regulations to expressly regulate gendered violence and discrimination as workplace hazards. Similar calls were made by unions and other advocacy groups.
“This law reform action continues to be a welcome development in strengthening the legal framework to ensure greater protections against gender-based violence,” says Astrid Haban-Beer, Former President of Australian Women Lawyers.
Will we move from evidence to action
The Final Report of the Best Practice Review is due in August 2026. The window for reform is open.
“Without addressing power imbalances, systemic discrimination and intersectional inequality, harm will continue at scale,” said Malini Raj, Executive Directorof Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance.
In 2015, Australia led the world by changing the story on violence against women. In 2026, we have the opportunity to change the structures that drive it.
The question is no longer whether reform is necessary. It is whether we have the courage to act.