At the June 2026 HR Breakfast Club address, BAL Director Bill Pardy spoke on the topic of ‘Workplace Risk and Corporate Governance’.
The need for occupants of the C-Suite to understand and meet their obligations was discussed as a key accountability measure in efforts to align WHS compliance with appropriate standards of corporate governance.
Bill acknowledged that senior executives and directors operate in an environment where WHS obligations and corporate governance responsibilities increasingly intersect. Effective governance requires an appreciation that legal accountability extends beyond financial performance to the systems that protect employees, contractors and others involved in an organisation’s activities.
Under WHS legislation, officers must exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its statutory obligations. This includes acquiring and maintaining an understanding of the organisation’s WHS risks, ensuring appropriate resources and processes are in place to eliminate or minimise those risks, and verifying that those systems operate effectively in practice.
These obligations sit comfortably alongside the duties imposed under Corporations law. Directors and officers are expected to exercise care and diligence, make informed decisions, and oversee effective risk management. Significant safety risks are governance risks, and Boards should be satisfied that they receive meaningful reporting, challenge assumptions where appropriate, and ensure that identified issues are addressed in a timely and measurable way.
Practical execution of these responsibilities was the subject of discussion around the breakfast table. Bill suggested that regular oversight, reliable assurance processes, effective incident reporting, and a workplace culture that encourages the early identification and management of risk would all form part of the evidence required to demonstrate actual, rather than mere theoretical, compliance with legal obligations. It was noted that the legal expectation is not perfection, but informed and active leadership.
Organisations whose executives demonstrate visible commitment to workplace health and safety and sound governance will generally be better placed to meet their statutory obligations, strengthen organisational resilience, and reduce the prospect of regulatory scrutiny, which is a legitimate and growing concern for ACT businesses.
If you have any questions on this topic or would like to discuss these and other important considerations with us, please contact us and come along to the next BAL Lawyers HR Breakfast Club event on 17 July 2026.
If you have any questions or queries about the information in this summary, or if you are experiencing any issues and need advice, please contact the BAL Lawyers Employment & Investigations team on 02 6274 0999.