Hazard and Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure

Nomenclature

Term	Definition
ADI	Alternative Duties Injury — a work-related injury resulting in a change to regular job duties or restrictions.
ALARP	As Low As Reasonably Practicable — risk reduced so far that the cost of further reduction is grossly disproportionate to the benefit.
CRAW	Construction Risk Assessment Workshop — a risk assessment tool for construction to manage and control risks.
FAI	First Aid Injury — a work-related injury requiring simple first aid treatment only.
FTI	Fatality — a work-related injury that results in death.
JHA/JSA	Job Hazard Analysis / Job Safety Analysis — breaks down tasks to identify and control hazards.
LTI	Lost Time Injury — a work-related injury resulting in time lost from work of one day/shift or more.
MTI	Medical Treatment Injury — a work-related injury requiring medical treatment beyond first aid.
NDB	Notifiable Data Breach — a data breach that an entity must report under the Privacy Act 1988 Part IIIC.
Near Miss	An unplanned or uncontrolled event with potential to adversely affect the health or safety of a person or the environment.
SWMS	Safe Work Method Statement — a legally required document for high-risk construction work, detailing hazards and controls.
WHS	Work Health and Safety.

Purpose

This procedure describes hazard and incident reporting requirements, and the procedure for incident investigation. This procedure establishes a systematic process for reporting, investigating and learning from workplace hazards, incidents and near misses.

Scope

This procedure applies to all employees, contractors, sub-contractors, consultants, their respective employees, and visitors to any Westlink workplace or controlled activity.

This procedure is applicable to all:

• Westlink workplaces;

• Westlink controlled activities and work-related activities (including working from home).

Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Responsibility	When
Management Team	Communicate to all employees the requirement to report hazards and incidents to management.	Ongoing
Management Team	Provide instruction to employees to enable the effective use of the incident reporting system.	Ongoing
Management Team	Manage all workplace hazards and incidents by assessing risks and implementing appropriate control measures.	On identification of a hazard or incident
Management Team	Initiate incident investigations.	Following an incident
Management Team	Comply with requirements for reporting notifiable incidents to the regulator.	On a notifiable incident
Management Team	Disseminate incident investigation findings and preventative control measures to employees.	After an investigation closes
Management Team	Update hazard and incident records to reflect changes to risk ratings and controls.	On change to risk ratings or controls
Employees	Report all workplace hazards, incidents and near misses.	Immediately or as soon as reasonably practicable
Employees	Cooperate with incident investigations.	When an investigation is underway
Employees	Implement risk controls and report back on their suitability in reducing risk.	Ongoing
Employees	Follow procedures and instructions.	Ongoing
Contractors and visitors	Report hazards and/or incidents to their site contact.	Immediately or as soon as reasonably practicable
Contractors and visitors	Cooperate with incident investigations.	When an investigation is underway
Contractors and visitors	Follow procedures and instructions.	Ongoing

Hazard Management

Hazard Identification

Hazard identification is the process used to identify all the possible situations in the workplace where people may be exposed to injury, illness or disease. Hazards in the workplace can arise from a number of sources including but not limited to:

• Poor workplace design;

• Hazardous tasks;

• Poorly designed plant; or

• Employees being exposed to hazardous substances, dangerous goods, processes or environment.

The hazard identification process identifies all situations where people may be exposed to injury, illness or disease. It covers work activities, materials, equipment, plant used, and the work environment.

Prior to the introduction of any plant, substances, processes or work practices, it is essential for the hazard identification process to be completed.

The relevant Risk Register (Corporate or Project Specific) lists all identified hazards that are present. This is to be reviewed and updated regularly.

Hazard Reporting

Reporting hazards minimises the risk of incidents and injuries. It identifies hazards so the workplace can remove them, or control them to reduce risk where removal is not possible.

When a hazard is identified, workers can report it in two ways:

• Enter the hazard directly into the incident reporting system; and

• Any associated actions will be managed within the system to address the hazard.

Hazard Sub-classifications

There are many hazards that may be identified in workplaces. The following is a list of sub-classifications to assist in categorising hazards:

• Physical Hazards:

• Falling objects, tripping hazards (uneven surfaces, cables, debris), slippery surfaces

• Overhead hazards, sharp objects, confined spaces, electrical hazards

• Chemical Hazards:

• Exposure to toxic chemicals (acids, solvents, gases), improper storage of hazardous substances

• Spills and leaks, inadequate ventilation in areas with chemical exposure

• Biological Hazards:

• Harmful organisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi), exposure to biological materials

• Vector-borne diseases (ticks, mosquitoes)

• Ergonomic Hazards:

• Poor workstation design, incorrect lifting techniques, repetitive motion injuries, awkward postures

• Psychosocial Hazards:

• Workplace stress, bullying and harassment, workload issues, lack of support

• Mechanical Hazards:

• Equipment malfunction, machinery entanglement, equipment guarding issues, safety device failure

• Environmental Hazards:

• Extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, air quality issues (dust, fumes, particulate matter)

• Radiation Hazards:

• Ionising radiation (radioactive materials, X-rays), non-ionising radiation (UV light, lasers)

• Fire Hazards:

• Combustible materials storage, electrical hazards leading to fire, flammable liquids and gases

• Biomechanical Hazards:

• Heavy lifting tasks, repetitive strain injuries, manual handling hazards

Risk Assessment

Westlink must manage workplace risks arising from day-to-day business. It must also manage risks that arise from the nature of the work undertaken. Risk management includes:

• Identifying foreseeable hazards and the risks associated with these hazards;

• Assessing the risks — determining the consequence and likelihood of the risk occurring;

• Controlling the risk — implementing control measures to eliminate or reduce the risk to ALARP; and

• Continual monitoring and review of the abovementioned. Monitoring must be kept under review in order to:

• Ensure that agreed safe working practices continue to be applied; and

• Consider any new working practices, new plant or more demanding work practices.

A risk assessment systematically identifies all risks associated with a task, activity or process. It then implements the most practicable controls to eliminate or reduce the risk.

The risk assessment process should always take into consideration the hierarchy of controls to reduce the risk to ALARP. The hierarchy of controls, from most effective to least effective, is: Elimination, Substitution, Isolation, Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

There are two risk scores assessed in the Risk Register:

• Pre-mitigation — the risk score without controls in place (Inherent risk); and

• Post-mitigation — the risk score when controls have been put in place to eliminate or reduce the risk to ALARP (Residual risk).

Evaluation of Risk Assessment Steps

• Identify the hazard/risk(s) — anything that can cause harm;

• Decide who may be harmed and how;

• Assess the risks and take action;

• Make a record of the findings; and

• Review the risk assessment.

Considerations for Review of Controls

• A significant change to task or activity is identified;

• Legislation or Code of Practice changes impact the operation;

• An incident occurs relating to the activity including weather events;

• A significant hazard is identified relating to the task or activity; or

• At the expiration of a safety control document (e.g. JHA or SWMS) specified validity period — typically 1 year, unless specified otherwise.

Incident Management

All incidents, including near misses, must be promptly reported to the relevant Supervisor and the Operations Manager to facilitate a timely and effective response.

Personnel must report any incident that results in a fatality, serious injury, or a dangerous occurrence to management immediately.

Other incidents, while not immediately notifiable, should be reported to management as soon as reasonably practicable to enable appropriate corrective and preventive actions.

All incidents must be documented in detail and records will be maintained for at least five years.

The investigation process will identify root causes and contributory factors, involving relevant personnel in a collaborative assessment of the incident.

Term	Definition
FAI — First Aid Injury	A work-related injury requiring simple first aid treatment only (e.g. small cut requiring a band-aid).
MTI — Medical Treatment Injury	A work-related injury requiring medical treatment beyond first aid from a qualified medical practitioner.
ADI — Alternative Duties Injury	A work-related injury resulting in a change to the employee’s regular job duties or restrictions.
LTI — Lost Time Injury	A work-related injury resulting in time lost from work of one day/shift or more.
FTI — Fatality	A work-related injury that results in death.
Environmental Incident	Environmental incidents include both natural and non-natural hazards affecting the environment.
Near Miss	An unplanned or uncontrolled event with potential to adversely affect health, safety or the environment.
Non-Work-Related Incident	An event that affects an individual’s wellbeing but is not connected to workplace activities.
Information Security Incident	An occurrence that actually or potentially jeopardises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of information.

Notifiable Incidents

The CEO and Operations Manager have the responsibility to ensure that appropriate statutory authorities are notified of any notifiable incident.

Notifiable WHS Incidents

Work-related deaths and certain types of injuries and diseases must be reported to WorkSafe WA:

• The death of a person;

• A serious injury or illness of a person; or

• A dangerous incident.

Failure to report could lead to prosecution.

Type of Incident	How to Report
Workplace related death, a serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident	Call 1800 678 198
General Workplace (not a mine or a petroleum/geothermal energy operation)	Online via WorkSafe WA: - Injury or illness - Dangerous incident
Mine Site	Safety Regulation System (SRS)
Petroleum and geothermal energy operations	Online reporting
Dangerous goods incident	Online reporting to the Dangerous Goods Safety Branch

Types of Injuries Reportable to WorkSafe

The regulator (Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety) must be notified as soon as Westlink becomes aware of an incident. Reportable injuries include:

SERIOUS INJURY OR ILLNESS:

• Immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital;

• Immediate treatment for the amputation of any part of the body;

• Immediate treatment for a serious head injury;

• Immediate treatment for a serious eye injury;

• Immediate treatment for a serious burn;

• Immediate treatment for the separation of skin from underlying tissue;

• Immediate treatment for a spinal injury;

• Immediate treatment for the loss of a bodily function;

• Immediate treatment for serious lacerations;

• Medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance;

• Medical treatment following urgent transfer from a remote location; and

• Injury or illness that a medical practitioner considers likely to prevent the person from doing their normal work for at least 10 days.

DANGEROUS INCIDENT:

The regulator must also be notified immediately of any dangerous incident that exposes a person to a serious health or safety risk. Examples include:

• The uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance;

• An uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire;

• An uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or a pressurised substance;

• An electric shock;

• The fall or release from height of any plant, substance or thing;

• The collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of, or damage to, plant that is required to be licensed or registered;

• The collapse or partial collapse of a structure, including an excavation or of any shoring supporting an excavation; and

• Other incidents as stated in the WHS regulations.

A full list of reportable incidents and examples is provided in the WHS Act 2020 (WA).

Types of diseases that must be reported to WorkSafe WA:

• Infectious diseases: tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, Legionnaires’ disease and HIV, where contracted during work activities; and

• Occupational zoonoses: Q fever, anthrax, leptospirosis and brucellosis, where contracted during work activities.

Notifiable Environmental Incidents

Environmental Protection Act 1986, Section 72 requires a person who becomes aware of the discharge or escape of waste to report it. The report must go to the CEO of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

Specific incidents that need to be reported include:

• Discharges of pollutants into the environment (e.g. spills of hazardous substances);

• Unauthorised emissions to air, water, or land;

• Significant disturbance to ecosystems or biodiversity;

• Any other event that breaches environmental regulations or licence conditions; and

• The CEO or delegate will notify the regulator of an environmental incident on 1300 372 842.

Notifiable Data Breaches

A data breach occurs if personal information that Westlink holds is subject to unauthorised access or disclosure. It also occurs if such information is lost in circumstances where unauthorised access or disclosure is likely.

Examples of data breaches include:

• Loss or theft of physical devices or paper records containing personal information;

• Unauthorised access to personal information by an employee;

• Inadvertent disclosure due to human error (e.g. email sent to the wrong person); and

• Disclosure of personal information to a scammer due to inadequate identity verification.

The CEO or delegate will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner via the online Notifiable Data Breach form.

Incident Investigation

The main objective of an incident investigation is prevention. A good investigation aims to establish a series of events and causes that led to the incident and to identify corrective and preventive actions.

The type of investigation depends on the seriousness or complexity of the incident. Investigations are best done as a team, with individuals bringing different perspectives.

The Operations Manager is responsible for assembling the investigation team.

The following people should be considered for the team:

• QHSE Consultant;

• Line manager/supervisor;

• Elected Health and Safety Representative (when in place); and

• People with the relevant knowledge.

Responsibilities of Individuals Investigating

Individuals conducting an incident investigation play a critical role in identifying root causes and contributing factors. Their responsibilities include:

• Collecting and analysing evidence;

• Interviewing witnesses; and

• Gathering all relevant information to understand the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Investigators must ensure that the investigation is thorough, impartial, and conducted in a timely manner.

The team leader is responsible for documenting findings, preparing a detailed investigation report, and recommending corrective and preventive actions.

Throughout the process, investigators must maintain confidentiality and sensitivity.

Investigation procedures must be systematic. For any investigation the team should:

• Act as soon as possible after the incident;

• Visit the scene before physical evidence is disturbed;

• Not prejudge the situation;

• Secure the incident scene and keep non-essential personnel out;

• Not remove anything from the scene;

• Enquire if anyone has moved anything; and

• Take photographs and/or sketches to assist in reconstructing the incident.

After the initial investigation is complete the team should:

• Identify, label and keep all evidence (tools, defective equipment, fragments, chemical samples);

• Interview witnesses separately;

• Check to see if there have been any near misses in similar circumstances;

• Note down all sources of information;

• Keep records to show that the investigation was conducted in a fair and impartial manner;

• Review all potentially useful information, including logs, purchasing records, previous reports, procedures, equipment maintenance records and training records; and

• Develop a timeline of activities and consequences leading up to the incident to assist in verifying facts and identifying what went wrong.

What to Look For

Look for causes, not blame. Systems fail for many reasons and the people involved are not always the cause of the incident.

Events Leading up to the Incident

Review:

• The system of work being carried out and its adequacy for the job;

• The instructions and/or training given for the work;

• Any variation from instructions or standard work practices and the reasons for such variation;

• The workplace conditions (lighting, floor surfaces, temperature, weather);

• The exact location of the incident;

• The materials in use or being handled;

• The type of transport or equipment in use; and

• Whether adequate supervision was provided.

Facts Relating to the Incident Itself

Review:

• The state of the system and the actions that occurred at the time;

• The people directly and indirectly involved;

• The tools, equipment, materials and fixtures directly connected; and

• The time the incident occurred.

Facts Regarding What Happened Immediately After the Incident

Review:

• Any injuries or damage resulting directly from the incident;

• The people involved, including those rendering aid; and

• Any problems in dealing with injuries or damage (e.g. faulty extinguisher, isolation switch difficult to locate).

Essential Factors and Causes

To conduct an effective incident investigation, it is essential to look for the design, environment, work process and human factors that contributed to the incident.

Determining Recommendations and Conclusions

The following will assist investigators when determining recommendations:

Why Systems Failed

• How can we prevent failure or make it less likely?

• How can we detect approaching failure?

• How can we detect failure when it occurs?

• How can we control failure and minimise the consequences?

What Does the System Do?

• Why do we do this?

• What could we do instead?

• How else could we do it?

Which Persons Failed?

• What did they fail to do? (Include failure to supervise, train, check, adequately design, etc.)

• How can we make failure less likely?

What is the Purpose of the Person’s Actions?

• Why do we do this?

What Could We Do Instead?

• How else could we do it?

• Who else could do it?

• When else could it be done?

What Specific Items in the System Triggered This Incident?

• What does it do?

• Why do we do this?

• What could we do instead?

• What could we use instead?

• How else could we do it?

Incident Closeout

Any corrective actions, root causes and preventative actions identified are raised as actions individually in the incident management system. Actions are tracked to completion with evidence of implementation.

Where appropriate, an alert may be compiled and sent to the relevant personnel as deemed necessary.

Lessons Learned

Capturing lessons learned after an incident investigation is closed out is crucial for improving processes and preventing future incidents. The process includes:

• Bring together key stakeholders, including those involved in the incident investigation and any subject matter experts.

• Revisit the incident investigation report. Summarise the incident details, causes, and actions taken to resolve the issue.

• Discuss and identify the root causes of the incident. Understanding why it happened is crucial to preventing recurrence.

• Encourage open and honest discussions about what went well during the incident response and what could be improved.

• Assign someone to take detailed notes during the meeting. Capture key takeaways and insights.

• Identify the most critical lessons learned — focus on those with the most significant impact on prevention.

• Create specific, actionable recommendations for process improvements or changes in policies, procedures, or training.

• Assign responsibility for implementing each recommendation with clear timelines.

• Define measurable indicators to determine the success of implementing the lessons learned.

• Ensure that recommended actions are implemented according to the established timelines.

• Share lessons learned reports with all relevant stakeholders.

• Periodically revisit the Lessons Learned Report to assess the effectiveness of implemented changes.

Applicable Standards and Legislation

• Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) — s.19–27 (duties), Part 3 ss.35–39 (incident notification)

• Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA) — Reg. 35–38 (risk management), Reg. 54–64 (falls), Reg. 66–93 (confined spaces), Reg. 337–419 (hazardous chemicals), Reg. 699–704 (incident notification)

• Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) — s.72 (reporting environmental incidents), s.73 (authorised officer powers)

• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) — APPs 1–13, Part IIIC (NDB scheme), s.26WK–WR

• Dangerous Goods Safety Act 2004 (WA) — s.15 (general duties), s.62–68 (incident reporting), s.71 (investigation powers)

• ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems — Requirements — cl. 5.2 (policy), cl. 6.1 (hazard identification), cl. 8.2 (emergency preparedness), cl. 10.2 (incident investigation)

• ISO 14001:2026 Environmental Management Systems — Requirements — cl. 5.2 (policy), cl. 6.1.2 (environmental aspects), cl. 8.1 (operational controls and life cycle perspective), cl. 9.1.1 (monitoring, measurement and calibrated equipment), cl. 10.1 (continual improvement)

• ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management — Guidelines — Risk assessment methodology, risk treatment, monitoring and review

• Interpretive Guideline: Incident Notification (WorkSafe WA)

• Code of Practice: How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks (WA, 2022)