Government put the brakes on tradie safety measures years after new rules were introduced for home builders

New safety rules for tradies working at height — which have already been delayed for three years — have been stalled again, leaving unions fuming. The housing sector will now have until September 30, 2026 to transition to the requirements, which force builders to provide safety controls if there is a fall risk at any height. WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said the extension would give the construction industry more time to plan and implement improved controls, given the recent high workload. “It was always recognised that some workplaces would need time to adapt to the new regime, even though systems for identifying, assessing and controlling hazards should already have been in place,” Ms North said. WA’s Industrial Relations Minister Simone McGurk approved the delay from the previously agreed deadline of March 2025. Her intervention came after the Work Health and Safety Commission opposed any extension at their latest meeting in August. “Feedback from industry was that more time was needed to prepare for the transition, given the current pressures around housing construction,” Ms McGurk said. “I’ve made it very clear that there will be no further extensions to timeframes. “The safety of workers is paramount and remains a high priority for the Cook Government. “Regulations and safeguards remain in place, and employers must comply with those requirements as well as those under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020.” At the same meeting, Ms North had acknowledged a “lack of preparedness” in the sector could be “partly attributable to the lack of detail in the WA Falls Code”. However, Unions WA boss Owen Whittle said the sector had ample time for the transition and warned the lack of action could lead to more injuries and deaths in the construction industry. “We will have been waiting a decade for the same regulations around falls from heights in construction that already exist in the rest of the country, due to the refusal of industry employers to improve in time and the lack of action from Government to make them,” he said. “This is weaponised incompetence from the construction industry and will have consequences. “We will see injuries and even deaths in this industry well before they comply. “While the Act was introduced in 2022, the industry has known these changes were coming since the Act was announced in 2017. They will effectively have been given 10 years to get their act together.” It comes after a WA construction firm was fined $90,000 in a Perth court in August after a worker was seriously injured when he fell from a patio roof of a northern suburbs home. Just weeks earlier, a 25-year-old construction labourer was killed when he fell from the roof of a workshop in Katanning. Housing Industry Association of WA executive director Michael McGowan said the peak body supported the proposed changes and had been in “constant communication” with the WA Government and Worksafe but needed more time. “Due to the difference in construction systems, the harmonisation of national safety legislation would significantly change the work practices when constructing a roof in Western Australia, and for this to be done, the industry has sought additional time as part of this transition,” Mr McGowan said. “We are actively working in collaboration with the residential building industry to provide education on the new laws and ways that they can be incorporated into standard work practices in WA going forward.” He said builders designing new homes that will come online after September 2026 should consider how to meet safety standards and how manufacturers can produce more materials to keep costs low. The extension to 2026 will also be followed by a six-month Statement of Regulatory Intent period.