The world is full of vague terms that sound important but don’t seem to have any concrete meaning. In occupational health and safety, one of the most broadly defined and confusing terms is ‘reasonably practicable’. So what does it mean and how does it affect your risk management planning? These are serious risk assessment questions that affect every Australian construction business.

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 requires that duty holders create and maintain an effective safety culture at workplace through active consultation with relevant stakeholders (eg workers, clients, managers), the provision of health and safety information and through other forms of hazard analysis. Specifically the Act requires that all safety risks are either eliminated or minimised as much as is reasonably practicable.