Activity kit for this year's National Safe Work Month released

Safe Work Australia has released its activity kit for this year's National Safe Work Month, handing Australian employers a free bundle of resources that follows each phase of the risk management process. October's theme — safety: every job, every day — asks every workplace to make protection routine, whatever the occupation, industry, location or size.

The kit aims to assist employers throughout the month with useful material for their workplaces that corresponds to each stage of risk management. October marks National Safe Work Month, encouraging employers and employees throughout Australia to dedicate themselves to establishing safe and healthy work environments.

This year's theme: safety: every job, every day

The campaign theme for this year, safety: every job, every day, calls on all workplaces – irrespective of occupation, industry, location, or size – to emphasise safety every single day. Earlier messaging built momentum that the current focus extends; see our coverage of the National Safe Work Month theme announcement.

“Practicing safety: every job, every day means we can reduce the rate of fatalities, serious injuries and illnesses in our workplaces, and ensure that everyone gets home safely from work,” says Safe Work Australia.

“To help you make safety: every job, every day a reality, we’ll be stepping through the risk assessment process throughout October, with practical resources to guide discussions and activities that you can use in National Safe Work Month and beyond.”

What’s inside the campaign kit

Everything sits online, costs nothing to download, and suits any industry or business size. Expect:

• Activity sheets that guide small groups through hazard identification and control selection
• Posters for lunchrooms, notice boards and site sheds
• Social media tiles announcing your participation publicly
• Discussion prompts plus simple tools suited to pre-start meetings or toolbox talks
• Phase-based resources mirroring each step of the risk management cycle

Step through risk management, one phase at a time

The October sequence follows four familiar steps: find hazards, assess risk, control risk, then review those controls. Managers can run a single prompt per phase, guide a ten-minute conversation, and log outcomes inside their existing health and safety management system.

Ready-made procedures, registers and inspection tools make record keeping simple — especially for smaller operators without internal advisory services. Our National Safe Work Month resource hub collects templates that pair neatly with each activity.

Industry ideas for safety: every job, every day

Hazards shift markedly from one sector to the next, so treat the material as a springboard rather than a script. Below are prompts arranged by industry:

• Construction: revisit high-risk documentation such as a Rigging Safe Work Procedure so critical industry tasks receive proper scrutiny.
• Manufacturing: examine machine guarding, noise exposure and isolation, inviting maintenance services contractors into each conversation.
• Medical and aged care: prioritise manual handling, fatigue and occupational violence across clinical services.
• Transport and logistics: cover load restraint, reversing controls and rest breaks with drivers plus depot services crews.
• Mining and resources: align prompts with principal hazard management plans and recognised industry standards.
• Hospitality and food services: address burns, slips and knife handling inside every kitchen.
• Cleaning and facility services: discuss chemical labelling, lone tasks and industry reporting expectations.
• Professional services: tackle ergonomics, workload, remote arrangements and psychosocial hazards.
• Emergency services: rehearse dynamic risk assessment plus post-incident debriefs.

Support services beyond October

Regulators publish plenty of guidance year-round, and much of it dovetails with the campaign. Useful places to look include:

• Regulator advisory services – hotlines, industry codes of practice and a plain-English guide from bodies such as Safe Work Australia
• Association services – alerts and benchmarking tailored to your industry
• Insurer and return-to-work services – claims help, rehabilitation planning, injury prevention programs
• Consulting services – audits, gap analysis, system reviews
• Documentation services – editable templates aligned with legislation in each jurisdiction

Businesses lacking dedicated internal services often gain the most, because a downloadable step-by-step guide removes guesswork. Momentum matters too: employees notice when leadership treats October as a genuine reset rather than a poster exercise. Curious about what comes next? Read the theme for National Safe Work Month 2026, or revisit the 2022 campaign message for context on how national messaging has evolved.

Frequently asked questions

When does National Safe Work Month run?

Right through October, nationwide, every year.

What does the activity kit cost?

Nothing. Download each poster, prompt and tile free of charge from the regulator's website.

Does the material suit every industry?

Yes. Prompts stay deliberately generic, so any industry — from civil works through allied medical services — can adapt them quickly.

How do I guide my team through the activities?

Pick one topic, keep sessions short, then record agreed actions on the printable guide sheet. A five-minute chat with genuine follow-up beats an hour-long lecture nobody remembers.

Whichever industry you operate in, safety works best as a daily habit rather than an annual campaign. Print the posters, run the activities, keep records, then carry that discipline into November and beyond — because industry leaders build reputations on consistent safety performance, and support services exist to help at every step.