WorkSafe Victoria's Statement of Regulatory Intent 2026/27: What It Means for Manufacturers

What the Statement of Regulatory Intent actually is

Each financial year, WorkSafe Victoria publishes a short document called the Statement of Regulatory Intent. It is not legislation and it does not create new duties. What it does is tell the Victorian community — in plain terms — how WorkSafe is approaching regulation for the year ahead and, specifically, where it is pointing its inspectors.

The version live on WorkSafe's site as at October 2026 covers the 2026/27 financial year. (WorkSafe published a separate one-page version for 2025/26 in July 2025; the current Statement supersedes it.) If you run a Victorian manufacturing business, this is one of the few WorkSafe publications worth reading in full every year, because it is the closest thing to an advance notice of what an inspector is likely to be looking for when they turn up at your gate.

The goal driving it

WorkSafe frames the Statement around a single target: cutting workplace deaths by 30 per cent and injuries by 20 per cent by 2030. Everything else in the document — the industries named, the hazards listed, the enforcement posture — is pitched as the mechanism for getting there. That framing matters for how you read the rest of it: this isn't a list of "gotcha" items, it's WorkSafe telling you where the fatality and serious-injury data points.

The five priority industries — and why manufacturing made the list

WorkSafe names five priority industries for 2026/27:

• Health care and social assistance
• Construction
• Government
• Agriculture
• Manufacturing

Manufacturing's inclusion isn't a surprise if you've looked at the state's injury claims data over recent years, but it is a formal signal: WorkSafe is directing proportionally more inspection and compliance effort at manufacturing sites than at industries not on this list. Being named doesn't mean every manufacturer gets a visit this year, but it does mean the odds of an unannounced inspection are higher than they were when manufacturing wasn't singled out, and that any inspection that does happen will be looking specifically for the hazards below.

If you haven't already read our general guides on what WorkSafe inspectors actually check and our inspection checklist for Victorian manufacturers, this is the year to revisit them — this Statement is the "why" behind the "what."

The hazards WorkSafe says it's targeting

Within the priority industries, the Statement names specific hazards WorkSafe is focusing on:

• Falls from height
• Occupational violence and aggression
• Hazardous manual handling
• Bullying and harassment
• Occupational illness and disease
• Loading and unloading of mobile plant

For a manufacturing plant, the two that translate most directly to the shop floor are hazardous manual handling and loading/unloading of mobile plant — forklifts, pallet jacks, cranes and the dock area where goods move between vehicles and the warehouse. Occupational illness and disease is broader and covers long-latency exposures (noise, dust, chemical exposure) rather than a single incident. Falls from height is listed as a cross-industry priority primarily driven by construction data, but it still applies anywhere your workers access mezzanines, racking, roofs or elevated plant.

None of these are new obligations. They're existing duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 that WorkSafe is telling you, in advance, it intends to check harder on this year.

Psychological health: a focus across every industry, not just the five

Separately from the five priority industries, the Statement calls out improving workplace consultation and psychological health as a focus across all Victorian workplaces — manufacturing included, regardless of whether you sit in a priority category for other reasons. This lines up with the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, which WorkSafe's own psychological health guidance confirms have now commenced. Under that guidance, employers are expected to understand their obligations under the regulations, identify psychosocial hazards in their workplace (bullying, aggression, sexual harassment, fatigue are the examples WorkSafe gives), and control the risk of harm from them — the same risk-management logic you'd apply to a physical hazard, just applied to things like workload, bullying, and violence or aggression from customers or the public.

For a manufacturer, this means consultation processes (toolbox talks, HSR engagement, incident reporting pathways) are now squarely in scope for a WorkSafe conversation, not just machine guarding and manual handling.

What "strong enforcement" means in practice

The Statement is explicit that its priorities are backed by a strong enforcement approach, under which employers are held accountable for failing to protect workers. WorkSafe also says it will continue supporting duty holders — in priority industries and otherwise — with information, education and tools to help them comply. Read together, the message is: support is available if you're trying to get compliant, but enforcement action is the stated response to employers who aren't.

Practically, that's consistent with what WorkSafe already does under the OHS Act: improvement notices for ongoing non-compliance, prohibition notices for immediate risk, and referral for prosecution in serious cases. The Statement doesn't introduce new enforcement tools — it signals that existing ones will be applied more actively in the named industries and hazard areas this year.

What this means for your plant, practically

If you manage a Victorian manufacturing site, the Statement gives you a reasonably specific to-do list for the 2026/27 year:

1. Re-check manual handling controls — not just that a risk assessment exists, but that the controls in it (mechanical aids, task rotation, team lifting) are actually in use on the floor.
2. Audit your mobile plant loading/unloading area — pedestrian separation, trained and licensed operators, and a current pre-start checklist regime for forklifts and cranes.
3. Confirm your psychosocial hazard identification is documented — not just a policy statement, but an actual process for identifying and controlling bullying, aggression and fatigue risks, with consultation evidence (HSR minutes, toolbox talk records).
4. Review fall-from-height exposure points — racking access, mezzanines, elevated plant — even if your site isn't construction-focused.
5. Make sure your documentation is inspection-ready, since a stated enforcement focus raises the practical likelihood of a visit. Our guide on being audit-ready for a workplace safety inspection walks through what "ready" looks like in practice.

None of this requires reinventing your safety system. It requires making sure the controls you already have on paper are the ones actually operating on your floor, because this is the specific year WorkSafe has told manufacturers it's checking.

This article is general information for Victorian manufacturers, not legal advice. Last updated: 18 October 2026.