Australia should reform industrial manslaughter laws according to Australian Catholic University research that found a workplace death could be punished by prison in one state and not in another.
Workplace deaths in Australia are instead governed by a disjointed patchwork of legislation was the key finding of the research led by ACU Peter Faber Business School Associate Professor Trajce Cvetkovski.
Published in the Australian Journal of Labour Law, the paper showed that piecemeal reform has led to inconsistent definitions across the states that pose major consequences for “reasonably equitable application of criminal sanctions for officers”.
“The outcome of an industrial manslaughter action in Australia could depend on your postcode,” co-investigator and barrister Neville Weston said.
The disparity would also raise questions for international investors who quite fairly would assume that a national company would be bound by national WHS laws.
Associate Professor Cvetkovski said: “There’s also not a great deal of uniformity for corporations and a tonne of uncertainty for lawyers.
“We are not dealing with improvement notices here. We are talking about serious crimes – before judge and jury; and industrial manslaughter is the most serious in this criminal calendar.
“For this to work fairly, there must be some agreement by regulators across all jurisdictions to work toward consistency – uniform guidance is not just desirable but essential.”
A comparative analysis of industrial manslaughter provisions revealed substantial differences.
Queensland was the only jurisdiction where a “senior officer” could be considered liable. The maximum penalty for an individual in that state is 20 years.
In the Northern Territory life imprisonment is the maximum penalty, and merely an “officer” would be liable.
Across the states there is also confusion around whether offences are deemed “reckless”, “negligent” or “gross negligence”.
“Identifying who’s who within the legislation would be quite the task,” Associate Professor Cvetkovski said.
Few successful prosecutions against corporate citizens and individuals as officers have been finalised in Australia. After six years there has been no successful prosecution of a “company officer” for industrial manslaughter.
At the time the Queensland industrial manslaughter laws were enacted, the State Government said the laws would allow top-level corporate figures to be held to account.
Jeffrey Owen of Owen’s Electric Motor Rewinds in Gympie was convicted and sentenced in 2022, and this case was heralded at the first conviction of an individual for industrial manslaughter since 2017.
The defendant was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, suspended after 18 months. However, no person holding a position in a corporation who is responsible for its corporate culture has been convicted of industrial manslaughter.
In March 2026, the District Court of Queensland found mining contractor Mastermyne guilty of industrial manslaughter after a miner was fatally injured in an underground roof collapse.
The judge imposed a $7 million fine and recorded a conviction. But no individual officers have been charged with industrial manslaughter.
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