Site induction requirements in NSW

Short answer: there is no NSW regulation that says "run a site induction". What NSW has instead is a duty to make sure people know the hazards before they start, and above a dollar threshold, a specific duty about your safety plan. On housing work, the rules also let you hand part of the job to your subbies, which almost nobody explains.

Here is how it actually works, and what it means if you are building houses rather than towers.

NSW site induction rules at a glance

Two different obligations, and which one applies to you

NSW replaced the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 with the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, so provisions are now called sections rather than clauses. The construction numbering did not change.

The line that decides which rules you are under is $250,000. At or above that, the work is a construction project, you are the principal contractor if you have management or control of the workplace, and you need a WHS management plan.

If your job is a construction project, section 310 gives you a duty with teeth. The principal contractor must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that every individual who is to carry out construction work is made aware of the content of the WHS management plan, and knows they have a right to inspect it at any time.

The approved Code of Practice lists three acceptable ways to do that: give subcontractors a copy of the plan with a requirement to brief their own workers before they start on site and then check that it happened; display the plan on site on a sign or sticker; or give every worker a copy directly.

If your job is below the threshold, section 310 does not apply. The duty that still applies is the general one: providing the information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect people from risks arising from your work. There is no prescribed form and no prescribed record. That is why you will find no NSW page telling you to run an induction, and why so much of the advice online is vague.

The housing rule nobody explains

This is the part worth reading twice if you build houses.

The approved Construction Work Code of Practice deals with housing separately, and what it says is genuinely different from the commercial position:

In housing construction work, PCBUs must provide relevant workplace specific training. Subcontractors can provide this training to the workers they employ or engage and do this on behalf of the builder or principal contractor following appropriate consultation. The builder or principal contractor should discuss with subcontractors the site conditions and specific work health and safety issues to be used for this training and then verify the training has been provided.

Read carefully, that is a three-part arrangement, and most builders only do the middle part.

One. You discuss the site conditions and the specific safety issues with the subcontractor. Not a generic chat. The voids on this job, the excavation on this job, the access on this job.

Two. The subcontractor delivers that training to their own workers. This is the part builders assume is the whole rule, and it is the reason a lot of small builders think inductions are somebody else's problem.

Three. You verify it happened. This is the part that gets skipped, and it is the part that will be looked at hardest if something goes wrong. Verification does not mean asking "all good?" as they walk past. It means having something that shows you checked.

The Code is not law. But an approved Code is admissible in proceedings as evidence of whether a duty has been complied with, and a court can rely on it in working out what was reasonably practicable. Standing outside it is a decision you should make deliberately, not by accident.

What the induction should actually cover

The Code lists what workplace-specific induction training should get across:

• Site safety rules
• Workplace facilities, where they are, how to use them, how they are maintained
• First aid provisions and emergency procedures, including after-hours emergency contacts
• Health monitoring requirements and procedures
• Access, egress and security
• How safety issues get resolved on this site

Note the after-hours emergency contacts. That is the one that is almost never on a small builder's induction form, and it is on the regulator's list.

The Code is also relaxed about how you deliver it. Toolbox talks, pre-start meetings, on-the-job instruction, a one-off session, or online tools and apps are all listed as acceptable ways to run workplace-specific induction training. There is no requirement that it be a form on a clipboard.

A white card is not a site induction

These get conflated constantly, including by people who should know better.

The white card, properly a general construction induction training card, is about construction work in general. Under sections 316 and 317 you must not let a worker carry out construction work unless they hold one, and unless they have done construction work in the last two years. The card does not expire and there is no refresher. It lapses only if the holder does no construction work for two consecutive years.

It tells you nothing about your site. It does not cover your voids, your trench, your access, or where your first aid kit is. Checking a white card and calling it an induction is the single most common mistake in this area.

Write the number down when you check it. An unrecorded check and no check at all look identical six months later.

What to keep

There is no prescribed retention period for site induction records in NSW. That absence is not permission to keep nothing.

Two other numbers set a sensible benchmark. A record of a notifiable incident must be kept at least five years. And proceedings can be brought within two years of an offence first coming to the WHS prosecutor's notice, or longer where there is a coronial inquest. Your induction records need to outlive the job by a fair margin, because the question arrives long after the house is finished.

For toolbox talks, which the Code treats as a legitimate way to deliver this training, it says the best practice is to keep a record of the topic covered, the attendees, and any feedback received.

What this looks like on a normal job

You are building a house in western Sydney. Two hundred and eighty thousand, so it is a construction project and section 310 applies.

The framer arrives with two workers you have not met. You walk them around: the void at the stair, where the board is stacked, where the switchboard is, first aid in the ute, and who to ring after hours. You check white cards and write the numbers down. You ask whether anything about their work creates a risk for anyone else today, and find out the truss delivery is coming at eleven.

You give the framer a copy of your safety plan and tell him his people need to know what is in it before they start. Next week you ask him to confirm his new bloke got the same walk-around, and you write down that you asked and what he said.

That is the whole obligation, done properly, in about six minutes.

Doing it without the clipboard

The walk-around is the part that matters and no software replaces it. What software fixes is the second half: proving it happened, months later, from another job.

Foreman's site inductions put a QR code at the gate that anyone new completes on their own phone before they start, with nothing to install.

The part that matters for the Code's third step is what happens afterwards. Every induction lands in a register for that job, so "has his new bloke actually been through it" is a thing you look up from wherever you are, rather than a thing you have to remember to chase on Monday. There is no cap on inductions, including on the free plan.

Prefer paper? The free site induction record has the same fields. Comparing tools? See the best site induction apps in Australia, with prices.

Other states

Queensland takes a different line, stating that site-specific induction is not compulsory for housing construction work (Queensland's rules in full). Victoria goes the other way and requires site-specific training by regulation, with no housing exemption (Victoria's rules in full). If you build across a border, do not assume the NSW position travels. For WA, SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT, see site induction requirements in every state.

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This page explains general obligations and is not legal advice. For a specific situation, check with SafeWork NSW or get advice on your contract.