NSW's s26A Is Now in Force: Codes of Practice Became Comply-or-Justify on 1 July 2026

Section 26A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) came into force on 1 July 2026. A PCBU must now comply with an applicable approved code of practice, or manage the relevant risk to a standard that is equivalent to or higher than the standard in the code. Lawyers call this comply-or-justify.

Before 1 July, codes in NSW worked the way they still work in most of Australia: admissible as evidence of what is “reasonably practicable”, but not a binding benchmark. That era is over in NSW. If an approved code applies to a risk in your business and you are not following it, the onus is now on you to show your alternative controls meet the code's standard or better.

A breach is still prosecuted through the existing Category 1–3 offences — the code itself is not a separate offence — but the code now sets the yardstick a court measures you against.

Every PCBU in NSW with a risk that an approved code covers — and that is nearly everyone, because roughly 30 approved codes span first aid, managing work environment and facilities, psychosocial hazards, hazardous manual tasks, noise, plant, falls, confined spaces, demolition and more.

The practical exposure is highest for businesses that (a) never worked out which codes apply to them, or (b) run “our own way of doing it” without documentation. Neither position survives comply-or-justify: the first can't name the benchmark, the second can't prove equivalence.

Two common misreadings to avoid: s26A does not make every line of every code an absolute rule — the justify limb is real, but it must be evidenced; and it does not apply outside NSW — the other harmonised states keep the evidence-only rule, and Victoria runs its own compliance-code safe-harbour mechanism.

1. Map your codes. Work out exactly which approved codes touch your operations — our codes of practice checker gives you the state-correct status and our WHS Compliance Requirements Checker builds the full obligations list around them.

2. Gap-check against each code. For each applicable code, either follow it or document precisely how your alternative controls meet an equivalent-or-higher standard. “We've always done it this way” is not a justification; a dated, reasoned equivalence assessment is.

3. Put it in the review rhythm. Codes get updated. A comply-or-justify duty means a code update can silently move your benchmark — diarise an annual codes review alongside your risk-register review.

Done once, properly documented, this is a manageable exercise — and it doubles as strong due-diligence evidence for officers under s27.

Yes — significantly. NSW has an approved Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards, and psychosocial risks are already regulated duties under regs 55A–55D of the WHS Regulation 2017 (NSW). With s26A in force, that code is now the benchmark NSW employers must meet or justify against — workload design, consultation on psychosocial risk, and documented control decisions included.

If your psychosocial risk work currently lives in an HR folder rather than the WHS risk register, start with our psychosocial risk self-assessment — it maps the 16 model hazard categories with the per-state enforceability position built in.

General information, not legal advice. Positions verified 22 July 2026.