On 7 March 2018 the NSW Government introduced the Work Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2018 into the Legislative Council.

The Bill is intended to implement 6 of the 11 recommendations arising from a recent statutory review of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) (NSW Act) and to accommodate police responses to active armed offender incidents.

If passed in its current form, the Bill will:

• empower SafeWork NSW inspectors to record interviews using a sound recording or audio visual device without the consent of the interviewee, provided that the interviewee is first informed that he or she is to be recorded. EPA inspectors already have (and use) such a power when investigating compliance with environmental laws. The inspector must provide the interviewee with a copy of the recording as soon as practicable after it is made
• empower SafeWork NSW to require the production of documents from outside of New South Wales, such as from the head office, data centre or control room of a business which operates in New South Wales
• empower SafeWork NSW to require a person located outside of New South Wales to give oral or written evidence in relation to matters being investigated under the NSW Act
• exempt from prosecution individual members of the NSW Police Force when responding to particular active armed offender incidents.

Expanded Investigative Powers 
The proposed expansion of the regulator's investigative powers has potential implications for any organisation which operates both within and outside of New South Wales. Those organisations will need to be aware of the scope of the changes and their impact on the rights and responsibilities of the organisation and its personnel.

For example:

• although Victorian and South Australian law enshrines the privilege against self-incrimination, a person in either of those states who is served with a section 155 notice under the NSW Act would not be excused from answering a question or providing information or documents on the ground that doing so may tend to incriminate him or her (although the information provided under compulsion cannot always be used against its provider personally)
• the investigative powers may be used by SafeWork NSW to investigate whether a person who is usually based out of New South Wales but who is an officer of an organisation with a presence in New South Wales has complied with his or her duty of due diligence imposed by the NSW Act.