Work Health and Safety Policy

Introduction

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is the Australian Government’s primary authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety. Our purpose is to protect the Australian people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation, through understanding risks, best practice regulation, research, policy, services, partnerships and engaging with the community.

The ARPANSA program of work entails six key objectives that guide our priorities and contribute to delivering radiation protection and nuclear safety outcomes to the Australian community: 

• Protect the public, workers and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation. 
• Promote radiological and nuclear safety and security, and emergency preparedness. 
• Promote the safe and effective use of ionising radiation in medicine. 
• Ensure risk informed and efficient regulation.
• Strengthen engagement with community and government.
• Enhance organisational innovation, capability and resilience.

In delivering these outcomes ARPANSA is committed to providing the highest quality products and services to the Australian government and community.

Purpose

This policy outlines ARPANSA’s commitment to work health and safety and the means by which the agency will comply with legislative requirements, namely the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

Scope

This policy applies to all business operations and functions, including those situations where workers are required to work off-site. 

Roles and responsibilities

Roles and responsibilities of the policy are set out in accordance with the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and are summarised below.

¹Terms highlighted in bold are explained under Section 7 - Terms and definitions

Policy commitment

ARPANSA’s commitment to safety through protecting the Australian people and the environment from the harmful effect of radiation, is second to none and we are equally committed to utilising our expertise to develop a leading work, health and safety framework within the agency.

This policy shows the commitment of ARPANSA’s management to:

• Provide a safe environment for all employees, contactors and visitors. 
• Employ a holistic safety approach.
• The safety of all ARPANSA activities through the promotion of core values, beliefs and behaviours.  
• Prioritise safety with other organisational goals and thereby achieving business objectives without undue risk. 
• Maintain safety systems and set measurable objectives and targets to ensure continued improvement aimed at the elimination or reduction of risks.
• Comply with the Work Health and Safety Act (Cwlth) 2011, the Work Health and Safety Regulations (Cwlth) 2011, and applicable Codes of Practice and Australian Standards, with the aim of achieving best practice in work health and safety. 
• Embed safety systems across the whole organisation and nurture a safety culture. 
• Be a leader in safety.
• Ensure that continuous improvements are measured, evaluated and reported against the agency goals and objectives.
• Consult with key stakeholder, experts and the workforce for safety improvements.
• Report, investigate and learn from all workplace incidents and near misses.
• Support the rehabilitation of injured workers and assist them in returning to work. 

Safety is everyone’s responsibility and while ARPANSA’s Executive Group have additional responsibilities to allocate resources, provide instruction and ensure compliance, every person has a duty to prevent harm to ourselves and others by identifying hazards and managing risks in our workplace, wherever that may be. To achieve this, all workers at all levels need to be actively engaged in the process.

When it comes to safety we all commit to; see something, say something, do something to keep our workplace safe.

This policy will be reviewed biennially.  

Principles

The policy is based on the principle of ensuring health and safety in the workplace so far as reasonably practicable in accordance with the definition noted in the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Where it is not foreseeably practicable to eliminate risks to the health and safety they must be reduced so far as reasonably practicable.

Terms and definitions

Reference