1 Vision
Healthy, safe, and productive working lives
NSW is making good progress
Meeting national targets
In NSW we have met and exceeded the national targets:
- fatalities - a 20% decline* in worker fatalities due to injury
- serious injuries and illnesses - a 30% decline* in the incidence rate of claims**
- serious musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses - a 30% decline* in the incidence rate of claims**.
More ambitious targets have been set
By 2022 NSW aims to achieve the following results:
- fatalities - a 30% decline* in worker fatalities due to injury
- serious injuries and illnesses - a 50% decline* in the incidence rate of claims**
- serious musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses - a 50% decline* in the incidence rate of claims**.
*The reductions will be measured against baselines in the Australian WHS Strategy 2022. See page 17 of Roadmap.
**Resulting in one or more weeks off work
NSW has met and exceeded targets under the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022.
More to do
The impact of workplace harms is too high:
- 62 worker fatalities in NSW in 2017
- 32,998 workplace injuries and illnesses in NSW during 2016/17
Many hot spots require further improvement
Agriculture / Health care / Transport / Construction / Manufacturing / Government / Manual handling / Falls from heights / Unsafe use of quad bikes and forklifts / Working live with electricity / Traumatic injury from poorly guarded machinery / Mental stress / Exposure to hazardous chemicals and materials.
Comparing to other Australian jurisdictions
From 2011-16 NSW had the highest number of fatalities based on a five year average with the 3rd lowest fatality rate.
In 2015/16 NSW had the third highest incidence rate, however had the second largest reduction since 2011/12.
