A system of infringement notices is a common mechanism for enforcing compliance in a range of regulatory settings, now including the harmonised work health and safety regime.

While Div 3 of Pt 13 of the Model Work Health and Safety Act (the Model Act) allows for jurisdictions to enact provisions (as necessary) to establish an infringement scheme, specific legislation in relation to such schemes already exists in some jurisdictions. As such, some jurisdictions (being Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory) did not populate Pt 13 Div 3 in their work health and safety legislation, but instead only inserted notes referring to their existing schemes.

In the versions of the Model Act enacted by other jurisdictions, Pt 3 Div 3 has been populated, but with different amounts of detail. The Commonwealth provisions set out a comprehensive infringement notice scheme for work health and safety contraventions, while the sections enacted by New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania still refer (in some way or another) to their existing notice schemes contained in other legislation.

In essence, infringement notices (referred to in some jurisdictions as “on-the-spot fines”, penalty notices or expiation notices) can be issued by an inspector or other person of authority to a person who they believe has committed an offence. Such a notice gives the individual the option of paying a monetary fine or penalty (at a discount below what would be expected from any conviction by a court for the offence) or otherwise contesting the matter in court. If the person pays the fine or penalty, then no further criminal proceedings in relation to that breach can be commenced.

See Infringement notices.