Environmental Policy (Australia)

An Australian Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) Policy is a formal document in which an employer commits to providing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for all workers and others affected by its activities. It sets out the organisation's WHS obligations under Australian law, defines the responsibilities of officers, managers, and workers, and establishes the systems and procedures the organisation will use to identify hazards, assess risks, and implement controls. The primary legislative framework governing WHS in Australia is the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (the WHS Act) and the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 (Cth) (the WHS Regulation), developed by Safe Work Australia as model legislation. As of 2026, the model WHS Act has been adopted by the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania. Victoria and Western Australia have separate but substantially similar legislation (the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) and the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)). The central obligation on employers is found in s 19 of the WHS Act. A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers engaged by or caused to be engaged by the PCBU, and the health and safety of workers whose activities in carrying out work are influenced or directed by the PCBU. The 'so far as is reasonably practicable' qualifier requires the PCBU to weigh the likelihood and severity of a risk against the availability and cost of measures to eliminate or minimise it. Under s 27 of the WHS Act, officers of a PCBU (including directors and senior managers) have a positive duty to exercise due diligence to ensure the organisation complies with its WHS obligations. This includes acquiring and keeping up-to-date knowledge of WHS matters, understanding the operations and associated risks of the business, ensuring the PCBU has appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise WHS risks, and verifying that those resources and processes are being used effectively. Workers also have duties under s 28 of the WHS Act. They must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, ensure their acts or omissions do not adversely affect the safety of others, comply with any reasonable WHS instruction given by the PCBU, and cooperate with any reasonable WHS policy or procedure. The WHS Regulation 2017 (Cth) supplements the WHS Act by providing detailed requirements for managing risks, including the hierarchy of controls: elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (PPE) as a last resort. Employers are required to consult with workers when identifying hazards, assessing risks, and making decisions about controls under Part 5 of the WHS Act. Notifiable incidents — including workplace fatalities, serious injuries or illnesses, and dangerous incidents as defined in ss 35 to 37 of the WHS Act — must be reported immediately to the relevant state or territory WHS regulator. The incident scene must be preserved until an inspector attends or authorises disturbance under s 39 of the WHS Act. Having a documented WHS Policy is a fundamental element of any effective WHS management system. It demonstrates the organisation's commitment to health and safety at the highest level, provides a framework for establishing WHS objectives and responsibilities, and supports compliance with the WHS Act and WHS Regulation. Employers with five or more employees are required to record significant findings of risk assessments in writing under the WHS Regulation. This WHS Policy is suitable for businesses of all sizes across all industries operating in Australia and should be reviewed at least annually, or whenever there is a significant change to operations, personnel, or legislation.

An Australian Modern Slavery Statement is a mandatory annual disclosure document required from large entities under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). It sets out how the entity identifies and addresses the risk of modern slavery in its operations and supply chains, and must be approved by the entity's principal governing body and signed by a responsible member before submission to the Australian Government's Modern Slavery Statements Register. The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) came into force on 1 January 2019. Under s 5, an entity is a 'reporting entity' if it is an Australian entity or a foreign entity that carries on business in Australia, and has an annual consolidated revenue of at least $100 million. Reporting entities must prepare an annual modern slavery statement covering seven mandatory criteria set out in s 16(1) of the Act. The seven mandatory criteria require the statement to: (a) identify the reporting entity; (b) describe the entity's structure, operations, and supply chains; (c) describe the risks of modern slavery practices in the entity's operations and supply chains, including its owned and controlled entities and its supply chain partners; (d) describe the actions taken by the entity and its owned or controlled entities to assess and address those risks, including due diligence and remediation processes; (e) describe how the entity assesses the effectiveness of its actions; (f) describe the process of consultation with any entities the reporting entity owns or controls; and (g) provide any other information that the entity considers relevant. Under s 16(2), the statement must be approved by the principal governing body of the reporting entity — such as the Board of Directors — and signed by a responsible member of that body. A responsible member is defined as a director of a company, a member of the governing body, or a principal executive officer of the entity. Statements must be submitted to the Australian Government's Modern Slavery Statements Register (administered by the Department of Home Affairs) within six months after the end of the entity's reporting period, per s 14 of the Act. The Register is publicly accessible, meaning statements are available to investors, customers, NGOs, and the media. Modern slavery encompasses a range of serious exploitative practices defined in s 4 of the Act, including: slavery; servitude; forced marriage; forced labour; debt bondage; deceptive recruiting for labour or services; human trafficking; and the worst forms of child labour as defined under the International Labour Organization's Convention 182. These practices often occur in global supply chains in sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, garments, electronics, and construction, as well as through the use of labour-hire agencies and contract labour. While the Act focuses on transparency and disclosure rather than imposing direct penalties for modern slavery in supply chains, the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Department of Home Affairs may publish a statement of non-compliance for entities that fail to submit a compliant statement. The reputational, investor, and commercial consequences of non-compliance or poor disclosure are significant. Beyond the legal minimum, best-practice modern slavery governance includes conducting supply chain mapping to identify high-risk tiers and geographies, implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct with enforceable modern slavery provisions, conducting supplier audits and assessments, establishing confidential worker grievance mechanisms accessible to overseas supply chain workers, providing training to procurement teams, and engaging with industry initiatives such as the Responsible Business Alliance or Sedex. This Modern Slavery Statement template covers all seven mandatory criteria under s 16(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), including entity identification, structure and supply chain description, risk identification, actions taken, effectiveness assessment, consultation, and Board sign-off. It is suitable for large Australian entities and foreign entities with significant Australian operations required to report under the Act.

An Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy is a formal corporate governance document that sets out an organisation's commitment to preventing bribery, corruption, and related misconduct in all of its business activities — domestically in Australia and internationally. It defines what conduct is prohibited, who the policy applies to, how gifts and hospitality must be managed, what due diligence must be conducted on third parties, how suspected breaches should be reported, how whistleblowers will be protected, and what training will be provided to ensure all covered persons understand their obligations. Australian organisations are subject to an interlocking framework of anti-bribery legislation at both the Commonwealth and state and territory levels. The centrepiece of Australia's foreign bribery regime is Division 70 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), which makes it a federal criminal offence to offer, provide, or cause to be provided a benefit to a foreign public official with the intention of influencing them in the exercise of their official duties to obtain or retain a business advantage. The maximum penalty for individuals convicted of a foreign bribery offence under Division 70 is 10 years' imprisonment. Corporations can also be held criminally liable for the foreign bribery of their associates (including agents, contractors, and related entities) unless the corporation can demonstrate that it took reasonable precautions to prevent the conduct — a standard that requires having a genuine, documented compliance program in place. The foreign bribery laws were significantly strengthened by the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Act 2024 (Cth), which came into force in February 2024. This Act introduced a new offence of "failure to prevent foreign bribery" (s 70.5A of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)), under which a body corporate is automatically criminally liable if one of its associates commits a foreign bribery offence, unless the body corporate had in place "adequate procedures" to prevent the conduct. This change substantially increases the compliance burden on Australian companies with international operations and makes a robust, documented Anti-Bribery Policy a legal necessity rather than merely a best practice. Domestic bribery of Australian public officials is separately prohibited by Division 141 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (which applies to Commonwealth public officials) and by state and territory bribery and corruption offences. These include the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ss 249B-249E (corrupt benefits), the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld) ss 55-58, and equivalent provisions in all other states and territories. Corruption involving elected officials and public sector employees in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, and other states is also subject to investigation by independent commissions including the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), and the Western Australia Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC). Gifts, entertainment, and hospitality are a common vector for bribery risk, particularly in industries involving close relationships with government clients, procurement decisions, or international counterparties. An Anti-Bribery Policy must clearly define what gifts and hospitality are acceptable (with a monetary threshold), what requires prior approval, what is absolutely prohibited (such as cash gifts), and how all gifts must be recorded in a centralised register. Facilitation payments — small payments to government officials to speed up routine administrative processes — are specifically prohibited under Division 70 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) and must be addressed explicitly in the policy. Third-party intermediaries, agents, and representatives present the greatest bribery risk for Australian organisations operating internationally, because they may make corrupt payments on behalf of the organisation without its direct knowledge. Section 70.4 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) provides that a body corporate can be liable for the foreign bribery of its "associates" — a category that includes agents — even without the organisation's knowledge, unless it took reasonable precautions. A documented third-party due diligence process is therefore essential. Whistleblower protections are an integral part of any effective Anti-Bribery Policy. Under Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), as amended by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019, eligible whistleblowers who report suspected bribery or corruption in good faith are entitled to legal protection from detrimental action, confidentiality of their identity, and the ability to seek compensation if they suffer reprisals. This Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy template is suitable for Australian companies of all sizes — from small proprietary limited companies to ASX-listed public companies — operating in any industry and in any jurisdiction. It is particularly important for organisations with international operations, government clients, complex supply chains, or activities in markets identified by Transparency International as having elevated corruption risk.

Create a Board Corporate Governance Policy for an Australian company aligned with the ASX Corporate Governance Council's Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (4th edition, 2019) and the director duty provisions in ss 180-184 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This policy establishes the governance framework for the board of directors, covering board composition and independence, director duties and conduct, board committees, integrity and disclosure policies, and risk management. Corporate governance refers to the systems, policies, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. Good corporate governance builds investor confidence, reduces the risk of misconduct, and supports long-term value creation. In Australia, the primary governance framework for listed companies is the ASX Corporate Governance Council's Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (4th edition, 2019) ('ASX CGC Principles'), which sets out eight principles: laying solid foundations for management and oversight; structuring the board to be effective and add value; instilling a culture of acting lawfully, ethically, and responsibly; safeguarding the integrity of corporate reporting; making timely and balanced disclosure; respecting the rights of security holders; recognising and managing risk; and remunerating fairly and responsibly. Compliance with the ASX CGC Principles is on an 'if not, why not' basis — listed entities are required by ASX Listing Rule 4.10.3 to include a corporate governance statement in their Annual Report disclosing the extent to which they have followed the Recommendations, and explaining any departures from them. Proprietary companies are not subject to the ASX CGC Principles, but many adopt similar frameworks voluntarily as a matter of governance best practice. The director duty provisions in ss 180-184 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) form the statutory backbone of Australian corporate governance. Section 180 imposes a duty of care and diligence, including a business judgment rule (s 180(2)) that protects directors who make good-faith, informed business decisions. Section 181 requires directors to act in good faith in the best interests of the company and for a proper purpose. Sections 182 and 183 prohibit directors from improperly using their position or information obtained as a director to gain an advantage or cause detriment to the company. Section 184 makes dishonest breaches of these duties a criminal offence. Civil penalties for breaches of ss 180-184 can be as high as AUD $1,565,000 per contravention, and courts may also disqualify directors from managing corporations. This policy covers the establishment and terms of reference of board committees — including the Audit and Risk Committee (ASX CGC Recommendation 4.1), the Remuneration Committee (ASX CGC Recommendation 8.1), and the Nomination Committee (ASX CGC Recommendation 2.1). It also addresses the code of conduct, whistleblower protections under Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act (as inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019 (Cth)), continuous disclosure obligations under s 674 of the Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rule 3.1, and the board-level risk management framework under ASX CGC Principle 7. This Corporate Governance Policy template is suitable for ASX-listed companies, unlisted public companies, and large proprietary companies seeking to adopt a comprehensive governance framework. It is designed to be reviewed annually by the board and disclosed publicly in the company's Annual Report and corporate governance statement. The 2024 mandatory climate-related financial disclosure reforms under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Act 2024 (Cth) introduce phased requirements for large companies to disclose climate-related risks and opportunities in accordance with the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS) issued by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). The first tranche of entities — those with consolidated revenue of AUD $500 million or more, or 500 or more employees — must begin mandatory climate disclosures for financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2025. A Corporate Governance Policy for entities in scope should address board oversight of climate-related risks and the integration of sustainability considerations into the company's risk management framework.

An Australian Whistleblower Policy is a formal document that explains to employees, officers, contractors, and other eligible persons how they can report suspected misconduct or wrongdoing, and what legal protections apply to them when they do. The policy is required by law for certain companies and must set out the key features of the whistleblower protection regime established under Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The whistleblower protection reforms in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) commenced on 1 July 2019, significantly expanding the protections available to whistleblowers in the corporate sector. Under s 1317AI, public companies, large proprietary companies, and proprietary companies that are trustees of registrable superannuation entities must have a whistleblower policy. The policy must be made available to officers and employees of the company. Failure to have a compliant policy is an offence attracting a civil penalty. The regime defines an 'eligible whistleblower' broadly under s 1317AA to include current and former employees, officers, contractors, suppliers, associates of the company, and their relatives or dependants. This wide definition ensures that those with genuine knowledge of misconduct — including former employees and supply chain workers — can come forward and receive protection. A disclosure qualifies for protection under s 1317AA(1) if the eligible whistleblower has reasonable grounds to suspect that the information concerns misconduct, or an improper state of affairs or circumstances, in relation to the company or a related body corporate. This includes suspected contraventions of the Corporations Act or the ASIC Act 2001 (Cth), conduct representing a danger to the public or the financial system, and tax-related misconduct under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth). The key protections afforded to eligible whistleblowers who make qualifying disclosures include: confidentiality protection under s 1317AAE, making it a criminal offence to disclose the identity of a whistleblower without their consent; protection from detriment under s 1317AD, prohibiting dismissal, demotion, harassment, discrimination, or any other adverse action because of a disclosure; civil and criminal immunity under s 1317AB, meaning a whistleblower cannot be sued or prosecuted in respect of their disclosure; and compensation rights under s 1317AE for any loss, damage, or injury suffered as a result of unlawful detriment. The whistleblower policy must, under s 1317AI(3), include information about: the protections available to whistleblowers; the disclosures to which those protections apply; how disclosures can be made; how the company will support and protect whistleblowers, including confidentiality measures; how the company will investigate disclosures; how the company will ensure fair treatment of employees mentioned in disclosures; and how the policy will be made available to officers and employees. In addition to the Corporations Act regime, whistleblower protections for tax-related disclosures are provided under ss 14ZZC to 14ZZE of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth), administered by the Australian Taxation Office. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) also provides a parallel regime for public sector whistleblowers. Best-practice whistleblower programs include independent external hotlines to allow anonymous reporting, regular training for managers and the Whistleblower Protection Officer on handling disclosures, clear procedures for managing conflicts of interest in investigations, and regular Board-level reporting on whistleblower disclosures. ASIC has published regulatory guidance (RG 270) providing detailed guidance on implementing whistleblower policies in practice. This Whistleblower Policy template covers all mandatory elements required by s 1317AI of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), including eligible whistleblowers and disclosures, protections from detriment and breach of confidentiality, how to make a disclosure to internal and external recipients, the investigation process, fair treatment obligations, and Board authorisation.