NT WorkSafe Strategic Plan 2021-2026

Message from the Regulator

As the Northern Territory Work Health Authority, I am pleased to present the NT WorkSafe Strategic Plan 2021–2026. This plan will guide our activities over the next five years, ensuring we keep our primary objectives of securing the health and safety of workers and workplaces, and influencing return to work outcomes for injured workers.

The plan was developed in consultation with NT WorkSafe’s capable and committed teams of inspectors, advisors and officers; informed by the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012–2022, the National Return to Work Strategy 2020–2030, and taking the unique Northern Territory context into consideration.

Working with finite resources, and with a vast geographical area to cover, we need to prioritise our activities so that efforts are concentrated in areas with the greatest need for intervention. In analysing our workers’ compensation data, we identified five priority industry sectors that account for nearly sixty per cent of serious injury claims in the Territory. These industry sectors will be the subject of targeted strategies, aimed at preventing workplace fatalities, injuries and diseases.

The plan is a commitment by government to improve the work health and safety outcomes, not only for the identified industries, but all Territorians. It is also a call to action to businesses, workers and other duty holders in the identified priority industries to make a commitment to improve safety.

Our analysis identified four mechanisms of injury that were overrepresented in serious injury and fatality data across the Territory. These four key risk areas will become the focus of our education and compliance campaigns. We will prioritise early intervention activities, designed to eliminate or minimise these risks, and take action to secure compliance wherever necessary. By increasing our proactive and targeted activities, we will aim to reduce the number of workplace fatalities and serious injuries in the Northern Territory.

We are committed to ongoing improvement and will evaluate our performance by reviewing and analysing our data regularly; we will continue to make evidence-based decisions on priority areas, refocusing our efforts as new priorities are identified; and will publish annual statistics to openly communicate key trends and areas of developing concern.

I am confident that the coordinated and strategic approach outlined in this plan will support NT WorkSafe to work with stakeholders to achieve progressively higher standards of work health and safety in the Territory, while remaining agile enough to respond to emerging risks.