Australian National Safety Month 2025 – Ideas, Checklist & WHS Plan

National Safety Month 2025 - National Safe Work Month October.

October is Australia National Safe Work Month. It's a time for you and your business to focus on your Work health and safety plan, or WHS plan, work on your toolbox talks, make any practical improvement to operations that actually become normal operation behavior. This year the theme is Safety: every job, every day.

What is National Safety Month in Australia?

In Australia, the national campaign is called National Safe Work Month and runs throughout October. Safe Work Australia coordinates national resources and sate/territory regulators promote local activities, awards and events. You can join in by planning weekly activates, promotive internal communications and logging improvements in you risk register.

Why it matters

• Focused Month = momentum to fix long-standing issues.
• Visible participation improves safety culture and worker engagement.
• Documented actions help demonstrate due diligence under the WHS acts and laws.

2025 theme: "Safety: every job, everyday"

This years emphasises making safety part of routine work - not a once a year campaign. Keep your October action as small, specific and measurable so they carry beyond the month.

Make the theme real with three rules

1. Every activity updates a named owner and a due date in your risk register.
2. Every improvement is lined to a hazard and a control.
3. Every team does one thing they will keep doing after October.

Your 4 Week plan

Use of adapt the structure below. It maps exactly to the WHS rick Management process.

Week 1 - Identify Hazards

• Walkthroughs (Front of house, back of house , loading, storage and admin)
• Consult team members (quick chats, capture "near misses" and pain points)
• Pull the last 12 months of incidents or first aid reports for any emerging pattens.
• Start or reestablish a risk register with the top ten hazards.

Prompts to look for: cramped aisles, heavy /repetitive lifts, poor lighting /ventilation, unsuitable trolleys/equipment, psychosocial stressors (e.g., high job demands.)

Week 2 - Assess risks

• Rate severity and likelihood for each top reported hazard.
• Check current controls: are they being used, maintained and effective?
• Prioritize top hazards for treatment in Week 3

Tip. For manual handling, assess task frequency, load weight/size, push/pull forces, reach height and travel distances. We sell Mini Pallets directly to counter the wide range of motions mentioned to reduce to the protentional injuries.

Week 3 - Control risks (Use the Hierarchy)

Aim higher up the Hierarchy of Controls before falling back to the admin/PPE

• Eliminate /Substitute: Remove unnecessary lights, switch to lighter packaging or more suitable pack weights.
• Isolate/Engineer: Redesign storage heights, use devices like our Mini Pallets to keep goods off the floor and reduce the need for frequent bending and carrying.
• Admin: Rotate tasks between team members, standardize operational processes and train team.
• PPE: wear gloves and appropriate footwear for the roles.

Deliverable: Publish three concrete changes in the workplace and then update your risk register.

Week 4  - Review the Established Controls

• Spot Check: Are controls in place and being used correctly?
• Did we reduce the exposure, incidents or any near misses?
• Schedule maintenance/training refreshers and set review dates per control.
• Share the results in a short "October Wrap Up" to the team mentioned what the wins were and what wis next to work on.

Industry Specific Safety Ideas

• Retail and Bottle Shops: Raise the floor level stock onto Mini Pallets/Dollies; Standardise receiving to "no hands- carry greater than 10 meters.  Add anti slip rubber mats in the cool rooms.
• Hospitality and pubs/clubs: back of house glide paths with no dead ends, keg and crate handling with mechanical aids,
• Warehousing and Logistics: redesign pick faces to waist to shoulder zones; set push/pull force limits; weekly inspections of MHE and pallet conditions.
• Aged Care and Community: separate patient handling (Clinical) from goods handling (supplies) reduce storeroom floor stacking. ensure a thorough review of potential trip hazards.

FAQ

When is National Safety Month in Australia?

October - and it is now known as Nation Safe Work Month.

What is the 2025 theme?

Safety: Every job, every day.

What are the weekly topics?

Week 1: Identify Hazards.

Week 2: Assess risks

Week 3: Control risks

Week 4: Review controls.

Is "National Safety Month" also in June?

No, that is the month that the United States of America designates for their safety month, Australia uses October.

Do Mini Pallets help with Manual Handling?

Yes, By elevating goods off the floor initially and keeping aisle clear, Mini Pallets function as an engineering control that reduces bending, carrying or slip/trip exposures.

Call to action - Quip your site for National Safety Month

Cut manual Handling risk this October with Mini Pallets.

Australia designed and made, Mini Pallets light goods off the floor to reduce bending, carrying and trip hazards - an engineering control that you can implement in your workplace fast.

Limited October Offer: Get 10% off with code "Safety10" at checkout (2025)

Why Mini Pallets?

• Reduce lift and carry exposures - goods stay on the stack until required, limiting the need to always lift and move.
• Improves walkways due to storing in vertical spacing - reducing floor clutter
• Faster movement, safer receiving and optimises storage.
• Australia designed and manufactured - creating jobs for Aussies.
• Proved to help optimises workplaces, keep team members safe and reduce damages goods.

Where they fit best:

Retail and bottle shops - Hospitality and clubs - warehouse - aged care facilities - back of house dry storage and cool rooms.