Written by William Paull
Co-Founder & Account Director
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Which states ban insurance for a WHS fine?
The six that ban it are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT. In each, cover for a WHS penalty is void by statute for policies written since those laws started. It is a criminal offence for an insurer to pay one and for the business to accept it. It is also illegal for a business or director to be indemnified for one. The dates and the detail differ by state.
New South Wales
Since 10 June 2020 the Work Health and Safety Act has made it an offence to take out cover for a WHS penalty, to provide that cover, and to accept a payment under it. A further change in October 2023 made any part of a policy that promises to pay a WHS fine void, so there is nothing left to claim on. Directors and officers who are knowingly involved in the breach can be prosecuted personally.
Victoria
Victoria does not use the national WHS laws, but its own Occupational Health and Safety Act gives the same answer. Since 22 September 2021 any term of a policy that pays an OHS penalty has been void. Since 22 September 2022 it has been a criminal offence to arrange that cover, to pay out under it, or to receive the payment. Victoria goes further than most states in two ways: partial cover is caught the same as full cover, and there is no reasonable excuse defence for paying or receiving the money.
Queensland
Under Queensland's Work Health and Safety Act, a policy term that pays a WHS penalty is void if the contract was entered into on or after 28 March 2024. It became an offence to enter into or provide that cover from 28 September 2024, and to take the benefit of it from 28 September 2025. All three dates have passed, so the ban is fully in force.
The maximum penalty for breaching the ban is $50,000, and officers of a company can be treated as having committed the offence themselves. Queensland's industrial manslaughter offence alone carries a maximum penalty of up to $10 million for a company and up to 20 years' imprisonment for an individual (WorkSafe Queensland). That penalty itself could never be insured under current law.
Western Australia
Western Australia has had the ban since its Work Health and Safety Act started on 31 March 2022, and its version is the toughest in the country. A policy has no effect to the extent it would pay a WHS fine. It is an offence to enter into that cover, to offer it, to be indemnified under it, or to pay or receive the money. A reasonable excuse is no defence. The fines for breaching the ban run to $51,000 for an individual and $255,000 for a company.
South Australia
South Australia joined the other states on 1 September 2024. Under its Work Health and Safety Act it is an offence, with a maximum penalty of $50,000, to enter into insurance for a WHS penalty, to provide it, or to take the benefit of it. Any policy term promising to pay a WHS penalty is void. Company officers are taken to have committed the offence themselves where they authorised or permitted it, or were knowingly involved.
Australian Capital Territory
The ACT banned it on 9 June 2023. Its Work Health and Safety Act makes it an offence to enter into insurance covering a WHS penalty, to provide it, or to take the benefit of it, and the policy term is void to that extent. Breaching the ban carries a serious penalty, indexed every year. Officers involved can be prosecuted separately.
What about Tasmania and the Northern Territory?
Tasmania
Tasmania is one of two places in Australia with no ban of this kind, but that is not the same as saying a WHS fine can be insured. Its Work Health and Safety Act 2012 says nothing about insurance for penalties. Section 272 deals with contracting out of duties, section 273 deals with levying workers, and there is nothing in between. This does not look like an oversight.
A bill that would have added the ban was introduced in 2023 and lapsed in February 2024. Later that year Tasmania added industrial manslaughter to the same Act and still did not include it. Whether a court would enforce a policy that pays a person's own criminal fine is a separate legal question Tasmanian legislation does not answer. Here the wording and the legal position both matter more than elsewhere.
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory has no ban, but silence in the legislation is not a green light. Like Tasmania's, its Work Health and Safety Act does not mention insurance or indemnity anywhere; section 272 runs straight into section 273. The NT also has an industrial manslaughter offence carrying a serious criminal penalty for a company.
How current are these answers?
These answers were last checked against each state and territory's Act in August 2026, and Queensland's again in October 2026. The laws changed between 2020 and 2024, and they can change again.
Who does a WHS fine reach?
Work health and safety law makes a business responsible for the health and safety of the workers it engages or directs, including contractors and subcontractors. It reaches the people running the business too. A WorkSafe investigation can end with a director prosecuted by name.
A building owner, or an owners corporation, can be prosecuted over a hazard on common property, separately from any penalty handed to the business trading on site. The court case behind that is on our property owners liability insurance page.
Doesn't statutory liability insurance pay the fine?
No, and that surprises most business owners, who assume "statutory liability insurance" means the fine is covered. It never covered the fine outright, even before this law change. What has not changed is the size of the defence bill: legal defence in a serious WHS matter often costs more than the fine itself, and what your own policy pays towards it comes down to its wording.
Statutory liability is one of five sections included by default on the management liability wordings we place: directors and officers, corporate liability, employment practices, statutory liability and crime. It is very rare for us to place a policy without all five. On the four wordings we place most, the policy can pay legal costs for a work health and safety investigation or defence, where the section is included. A director's legal costs for a regulator's investigation that starts during the policy can be paid on all four. So can a director's defence costs as the case runs, with the insurer's consent. All of it is subject to the policy, its limits and its sub-limits.
Who is management liability for?
You are the target market if you employ staff, even one, or hold a director role in a Pty Ltd, whether or not you draw a wage from it. That runs from a sole director with one employee up to a much larger board. The policy itself is on our management liability insurance page.
Frequently asked questions
Will Consolidated Insurance Brokers arrange a policy that pays a WHS fine?
A work health and safety penalty generally cannot be insured. Consolidated Insurance Brokers does not arrange any policy sold to pay one. Across most of the country it is a crime for an insurer to pay that money and for the business to take it, and where no ban exists the law is unsettled rather than clear.
What should a director check in a statutory liability section placed by Consolidated Insurance Brokers?
Start with whether statutory liability is on the schedule at all, then its limit. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reads that section with you. Statutory liability, like crime, often carries its own lower limit inside the policy's headline limit, and that is the number worth checking before a claim tests it. A work health and safety penalty generally cannot be insured, whatever the limit.
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers arrange management liability for a sole trader?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers can arrange management liability for sole traders. A work health and safety penalty generally cannot be insured, so the question for a sole trader is the same as for a company: what the wording pays towards the defence.
Will a public liability policy from Consolidated Insurance Brokers pay a WHS fine?
No. Public liability from Consolidated Insurance Brokers responds when someone is physically hurt or their property is damaged, and a work health and safety fine is neither. A management liability policy's statutory liability section, where included, is there to help a business defend itself when a regulator comes after it, subject to the policy's terms, limits and sub-limits. The penalty itself generally cannot be insured.