Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Revocation Regulations 2022

Three concise statutory concepts structure the instrument: authorisation, objective, and revocation. These are the only substantive legal concepts present in the instrument as made.

• Authorisation. The regulation is made under a head of power in primary legislation. Regulation 2 states the instrument is "made under section 158 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004." The instrument therefore relies on that section of the primary Act as its legal basis; the text of the Revocation Regulations does not itself reproduce s 158 or state its content.

• Objective. Regulation 1 declares the objective is "to revoke Regulations made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004." That expresses the instrument's purpose as the removal of a subordinate instrument created under the OHS Act.

• Revocation. Regulation 3 effects the objective: it declares that "The Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Regulations 2021 are revoked." The Explanatory details identify the revoked instrument as S.R. No. 93/2021 (Explanatory details, reg. 3 note).

The instrument also engages interpretative machinery by reference. The endnotes incorporate material from the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA). They state that section 54A of the ILA authorises specified style changes, and that references to ILA s 39B apply to undivided regulations becoming subregulations where insertions occur (Endnote 1, "INTERPRETATION OF LEGISLATION ACT 1984 (ILA)"). The endnotes quote or refer to section 36 and related subsections of the ILA that treat headings, examples, punctuation, and provision numbers as forming part of a statutory rule made after 1 January 2001 (Endnote 1, "Interpretation"). Practitioners must therefore treat headings, notes and punctuation in the Statutory Rule as part of the regulation in operation, in accordance with the cited ILA provisions.

Temporal mechanics are another embedded concept. The instrument was made and commenced on 14 January 2022 (Endnote 1). The endnotes explicitly record that the Revocation Regulations will sunset on 14 January 2032 by operation of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 s 5 (Endnote 1). Those dates govern how long the revocation instrument itself remains on the books.

Finally, the instrument is minimalist: it does not create new duties, penalties, or transitional arrangements; it simply withdraws a named subordinate instrument. That structural scarcity is the key concept for compliance and legal effect analysis: any practical change in obligations for regulated parties will flow from the absence of the revoked instrument rather than from anything created by the revocation instrument itself.

The Revocation Regulations directly affect the legal status of the Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Regulations 2021 (identified as S.R. No. 93/2021 in the Explanatory details). The instrument's immediate legal consequence is to remove that subordinate instrument from the body of current regulations. Who is affected in practice depends on who had duties, rights or compliance obligations under the revoked 2021 regulations. The Revocation Regulations themselves do not list those persons or entities; they only identify the instrument being revoked (Reg 3, Explanatory details).

From a structural perspective, those potentially affected include any persons, employers, occupiers, officers, or other parties who were subject to or relied upon the 2021 regulations while they were in force. Because the Revocation Regulations do not reproduce the content of S.R. No. 93/2021, the Revocation Regulations do not specify which categories of person were subject to obligations under the revoked instrument; to identify those categories a practitioner must inspect S.R. No. 93/2021 itself.

Regulation 2 indicates the legal source for both the revoked instrument (which was made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004) and for the revocation (the Revocation Regulations are also made under s 158 of the same Act). That ties the revocation to the OHS regulatory framework: the primary Act and its authorised subordinate instruments are the relevant legal context (Reg 2). Entities that operate in relation to occupational health and safety law,employers, businesses, persons conducting a business or undertaking, health and safety officers, and regulators,are the institutional actors most likely to be affected by the removal of a COVID-19 incident notification regulation, although the Revocation Regulations do not themselves specify this.

Other affected parties may include regulators or agencies charged with enforcing the OHS Act and subordinate regulations. The Revocation Regulations do not create enforcement directions, but their making alters the set of enforceable subordinate instruments that a regulator may rely upon.

Finally, the instrument's endnotes record administrative facts that affect access and lifecycle: the Revocation Regulations were made and commenced on 14 January 2022 and will sunset on 14 January 2032 (Endnote 1). That means the revocation will remain recorded as a subordinate instrument during that period. For compliance and legal-history purposes, anyone auditing regulatory obligations around COVID-19 incident notification must note that the specific subordinate instrument S.R. No. 93/2021 was formally revoked on 14 January 2022 by S.R. No. 1/2022.

The Revocation Regulations do not themselves create definitional duties, rights, civil remedies or penalties. Their single operative clause revokes S.R. No. 93/2021; there are no new regulatory obligations contained in the revocation instrument (Reg 3). Consequently, the Revocation Regulations' immediate legal effect is negative: they remove a subordinate instrument that previously may have imposed duties or conferred rights.

Because the Revocation Regulations do not include savings, transitional or consequential provisions, they do not expressly preserve or extinguish rights or liabilities that arose under the revoked instrument. The instrument does not state whether past compliance actions, notifications made under S.R. No. 93/2021 prior to revocation, or enforcement proceedings initiated under it are preserved. The absence of explicit transitional provisions is material: the instrument withdraws the regulation but does not set out a legal regime dealing with obligations, rights or liabilities created prior to revocation.

Any duties and rights that previously rested in S.R. No. 93/2021 must therefore be examined in the primary Act and in the text of the revoked subordinate instrument to determine whether obligations continue to have legal effect by virtue of primary legislation, common law, other subordinate instruments or express savings elsewhere. The Revocation Regulations do not purport to displace or reproduce obligations in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004; the instrument records only that it is made under s 158 of that Act (Reg 2) and that its objective is to revoke regulations made under the Act (Reg 1).

For regulatory actors and regulated entities, that means the removal of the specific subordinate instrument changes the set of enforceable regulatory requirements available to regulators. It also changes the legal landscape for compliance teams and duty holders who might have relied on the content of S.R. No. 93/2021 for their policies and procedures. However, any continuing duties under the OHS Act itself remain governed by the primary statute; the Revocation Regulations do not alter the text of the primary Act and do not indicate whether the primary Act contains independent notification duties.

The endnotes remind users about interpretative rules from the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984. Those provisions mean that headings, examples, notes and punctuation included in a Statutory Rule made on or after 1 January 2001 form part of the rule (Endnote 1, "Interpretation"). Practitioners should therefore approach S.R. No. 93/2021 with that interpretative lens when determining what duties and rights previously attached to that instrument, but the revocation itself provides no substantive guidance on those matters.

The Revocation Regulations do not create new offences, penalties, enforcement powers, or compliance mechanisms. Regulation 3 contains a single operative sentence revoking the 2021 regulations; there are no penalty schedules, infringement notices, enforcement clauses, or directions to regulators (Reg 3). Consequently, the revocation instrument does not itself provide a basis for enforcement action beyond the legal effect of withdrawing the revoked instrument from current subordinate legislation.

If penalties, offences or enforcement mechanisms existed in the revoked Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Regulations 2021, those sanctions are no longer available in that form after the revocation takes effect. The Revocation Regulations do not state whether enforcement actions commenced under the revoked instrument continue or are to be transferred to another legal basis; the instrument contains no savings or transitional clauses preserving enforcement rights or specifying how existing matters are to be treated.

Regulation 2 notes the instrument is made under section 158 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. That establishes the statutory provenance of the revocation but does not itself create enforcement measures within the revocation instrument. Enforcement of occupational health and safety standards would therefore depend on the primary Act, other subordinate instruments still in force, or general enforcement powers conferred elsewhere. The Revocation Regulations do not identify or amend those powers.

For practitioners advising clients or representing regulated parties, the immediate enforcement consequence is procedural and evidentiary: after the revocation date, a regulator cannot rely upon the revoked instrument as an independent legal basis for a penalty or compliance action; the regulator must identify any alternative legal basis (for example, obligations in the primary Act or in other subordinate instruments). The Revocation Regulations provide no guidance on record retention, audit trails or how notifications already made under the revoked instrument should be treated by regulators.

The endnotes remind users that endnotes, explanatory memoranda and other material printed after the endnotes do not form part of a Statutory Rule (Endnote 1, "Other material"). That distinction is pertinent when locating any enforcement or penalty provisions: only the text of enforceable statutory instruments and the primary Act constitute law; explanatory material is not itself an enforcement source.

The Revocation Regulations interact with the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and with interpretative provisions in the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 and the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 by operation of express references in the endnotes and authorising provision.

Primary legislative connection. Regulation 2 expressly states the instrument is made under section 158 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. That locates the revocation within the subordinate-legislation power of the OHS Act. The Revocation Regulations do not amend, repeal or otherwise alter the primary Act itself; they operate at the subordinate-legislation level by removing S.R. No. 93/2021.

Interaction with the revoked instrument. The Revocation Regulations directly alter the catalogue of subordinate legislation by revoking the Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Regulations 2021 (Reg 3; Explanatory details). Any other law that had referenced S.R. No. 93/2021 will, after revocation, refer to a non-existent subordinate instrument unless that reference has been updated or the referenced duties are embodied in another instrument or in primary legislation. The Revocation Regulations do not themselves update cross-references in other statutes or regulations; they only effect the revocation.

Interpretation of Statutory Rules. The endnotes incorporate several ILA provisions relevant to statutory interpretation. They state that ILA s 54A authorises style changes (Endnote 1). References to ILA s 39B affect how undivided regulations become subdivided by insertions (Endnote 1). The ILA provisions about headings, examples, notes, punctuation, and provision numbers becoming part of a statutory rule made after 1 January 2001 are set out in the endnotes (Endnote 1, "Interpretation"). Those interpretative rules affect how both the revoked instrument and the revocation instrument are to be read in context when resolving questions of statutory meaning.

Sunset under the Subordinate Legislation Act. The endnotes record that the Revocation Regulations will sunset ten years after making, on 14 January 2032, by operation of s 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnote 1). That is an inter-legislative lifecycle interaction: the Subordinate Legislation Act sets lifecycle limits for subordinate instruments. Practitioners should note that the revocation instrument will be subject to that expiry unless earlier repealed or remade.

Non-statutory material. The endnotes expressly state that explanatory memoranda, tables of provisions, endnotes, index and other material printed after the Endnotes do not form part of a Statutory Rule (Endnote 1, "Other material"). That clarifies the legal boundaries: explanatory material may assist interpretation but is not operative law.

In sum, the Revocation Regulations operate by withdrawing a named subordinate instrument within the OHS regulatory framework, and their interaction with other laws is confined to that withdrawal and to the interpretative and lifecycle rules noted in the endnotes. They do not themselves create cross-references, transitional rules or enforcement mechanisms that would otherwise adjust other laws.

The Revocation Regulations record a very short amendment history: there are no amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Revocation Regulations 2022 listed in the Table of Amendments. Section 2 of the endnotes, titled "Table of Amendments," states: "There are no amendments made to the Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Revocation Regulations 2022 by statutory rules, subordinate instruments and Acts." That is a present-tense description of the state of the instrument as at the version date (Version No. 001, Version as at 14 January 2022).

The "Amendments Not in Operation" section (endnote 3) notes that "This version does not contain amendments that are not yet in operation." In other words, as of this published version, no not-yet-commenced amendments are recorded against S.R. No. 1/2022.

The Explanatory details (endnote 4) include a short notation for Reg. 3: "Reg. 3: S.R. No. 93/2021." That explanatory note maps the revocation clause to the specific instrument being revoked, but it is not an amendment history as such; it is an identification detail.

Because the Revocation Regulations themselves revoke another instrument rather than amending it, one should also consult the amendment history of the revoked instrument (S.R. No. 93/2021) to understand the full legislative evolution of the subject matter. The Revocation Regulations' endnotes do not reproduce the amendment history of S.R. No. 93/2021; they only record that the revocation took place and identify the revoked instrument.

The lifecycle metadata in Endnote 1 states the regulation was made and commenced on 14 January 2022 by the Governor in Council under section 158 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and that it will sunset on 14 January 2032 pursuant to s 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. Those are administrative milestones rather than amendments, but they are relevant to the instrument's legal history and expiry.

Practitioners seeking a full legislative history should therefore consult the consolidated and historical versions of subordinate instruments maintained by the Victorian legislation website, as recommended in the endnotes, and examine the amendment tables and saved versions for both S.R. No. 1/2022 and the revoked S.R. No. 93/2021.

The Revocation Regulations include no notes or entries indicating any litigation, judicial review, or reported case law involving S.R. No. 1/2022. The text contains only the statutory provisions and endnotes; there are no case citations and no recorded legal proceedings attached to the instrument itself.

Because the instrument is a statutory revocation with immediate practical effect (it revokes S.R. No. 93/2021 as at 14 January 2022), any litigation that might involve regulatory obligations previously imposed by the revoked instrument would necessarily concern the content and legal effect of S.R. No. 93/2021, the OHS Act 2004, or other statutory sources. The Revocation Regulations do not record or preserve any litigation history arising out of the revoked instrument.

The endnotes do not list any cases and explicitly note that explanatory materials printed after the endnotes do not form part of the Statutory Rule (Endnote 1, "Other material"). That implies the document is a self-contained legislative record and not a case law digest.

Practitioners looking for litigation connected to the broader subject of "COVID-19 incident notification" should therefore search case law and tribunal decisions that reference S.R. No. 93/2021 or relevant provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Those searches fall outside the textual content of S.R. No. 1/2022 and are not recorded in this instrument's endnotes. The absence of litigation references in the Revocation Regulations is a neutral administrative fact: no litigation history is disclosed in the instrument as printed.

Several practical and legal "gotchas" arise from the structure and brevity of the Revocation Regulations. These are concrete attention points grounded in the instrument's text and endnotes.

1. No transitional or savings clauses. The Revocation Regulations effect the revocation of S.R. No. 93/2021 but contain no savings, transitional or consequential provisions. That means the instrument does not itself specify how to treat notifications made under the revoked regulations, ongoing enforcement actions commenced under the revoked instrument, or records held pursuant to the revoked regulation. Reg 3 is a straight revocation without elaboration.

2. Identity of the revoked instrument. The Explanatory details identify the revoked instrument as S.R. No. 93/2021 (Explanatory details, reg. 3 note). Practitioners must therefore consult S.R. No. 93/2021 to determine what obligations were removed by the revocation. The Revocation Regulations do not reproduce or summarise the substantive requirements of the revoked instrument.

3. Interpretative rules apply. The endnotes incorporate ILA interpretative provisions: headings, examples, diagrams, notes, punctuation and provision numbers form part of Statutory Rules made on or after 1 January 2001 (Endnote 1, "Interpretation"). When reconstructing what S.R. No. 93/2021 required, readers should treat its headings and notes as part of the law, subject to ILA rules.

4. The revocation instrument itself has a lifecycle. The Revocation Regulations are recorded as made and commenced on 14 January 2022 and will sunset on 14 January 2032 under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 s 5 (Endnote 1). That sunset date governs how long the revocation instrument itself remains recorded as a live subordinate instrument, even though its effect is to remove another instrument.

5. Endnotes and explanatory material are not law. The instrument's endnotes remind users that explanatory memos and material printed after the Endnotes do not form part of the statutory rule (Endnote 1, "Other material"). That distinction matters when arguing legal effect: the Revocation Regulations themselves, not the explanatory material, define the legal act.

6. Potential mismatch between regulatory references. Any other statute, regulation, contract or administrative instrument that expressly referred to S.R. No. 93/2021 will now point to a revoked instrument. The Revocation Regulations do not update or amend other instruments or contracts. Absent further legislative action, those cross-references may require administrative or legislative correction.

7. Enforcement gap risk. Because the Revocation Regulations do not provide an alternate reporting regime or restate notification duties, there may be a regulatory gap where a prior notification mechanism is removed. The instrument does not indicate whether other parts of the OHS framework continue to require the same or similar reporting. That is a practical compliance risk users must check by reference to the OHS Act and other existing regulations.

8. Minimal record of reasons. The instrument contains a single-line objective ("to revoke Regulations made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004") and no exposition of policy reasons or consequences. The Explanatory details identify the revoked instrument but do not provide detailed policy justification in this printed version. Administrative or parliamentary records external to the statutory text would be required to trace reasoning.

Each of these "gotchas" flows from the instrument's brevity and structure as recorded in the text and endnotes. They are concrete effects to investigate when advising clients or planning compliance steps.

Compliance in relation to the Revocation Regulations has two discrete dimensions: (A) immediate legal compliance with the fact of revocation, and (B) practical compliance actions for regulated entities who previously relied upon the revoked instrument. The instrument itself provides the factual starting points: it revokes S.R. No. 93/2021 (Reg 3), was made under s 158 of the OHS Act 2004 (Reg 2), and commenced on 14 January 2022 (Endnote 1). Use these facts as the baseline for the following practical checklist.

1. Locate and review S.R. No. 93/2021. The Revocation Regulations do not reproduce the content of the revoked instrument. To know which obligations have been removed, obtain the full text of the Occupational Health and Safety (COVID-19 Incident Notification) Regulations 2021 (S.R. No. 93/2021) and review its provisions, headings, notes and examples, treating those elements as part of the law in accordance with the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 interpretative rules recorded in the Revocation Regulations' endnotes.

2. Identify duties previously imposed. From the revoked instrument, identify which persons, businesses or entities were required to notify incidents, what events triggered notification, the timelines for notification, and any prescribed forms or reporting channels. Because the Revocation Regulations contain no transitional clauses, obligations that existed under S.R. No. 93/2021 cease to be current law on revocation unless maintained elsewhere. Where obligations have been relied upon for policy or contract purposes, note the practical implications for those arrangements.

3. Check primary Act and other subordinate instruments. The Revocation Regulations were made under s 158 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Reg 2). Identify whether the OHS Act itself contains independent notification duties or whether other subordinate instruments remain in force that impose notification or reporting obligations. Do not assume the primary Act is unchanged by the Revocation Regulations; it is the anchor for regulatory obligations and may contain separate duties unaffected by this revocation.

4. Preserve records and evidence. Because the Revocation Regulations do not provide savings for past notifications or records, organisations should retain records of any notifications, investigations, corrective actions and communications made under S.R. No. 93/2021 prior to 14 January 2022. Retention supports response to any later enquiries, potential enforcement actions brought under alternative legal bases, and internal audits.

5. Update policies, forms and compliance frameworks. Remove references to S.R. No. 93/2021 from internal procedures, compliance checklists and external contractual covenants where appropriate. Replace or annotate references to indicate that S.R. No. 93/2021 was revoked on 14 January 2022 by S.R. No. 1/2022, and cross-check whether substitute reporting obligations now apply under other laws.

6. Advise frontline staff and external partners. Communicate the change to personnel responsible for incident reporting, occupational health and safety teams, contractors and other stakeholders. Provide clear instructions on which reporting channels now apply and where to find the legal bases for notification obligations.

7. Engage with regulators if uncertain. If a duty holder is unsure whether a regulatory reporting obligation persists under another legal source, seek clarification from the relevant regulator or obtain legal advice. The Revocation Regulations remove S.R. No. 93/2021 but do not address whether regulators will continue to expect equivalent reporting under other statutory or administrative arrangements.

8. Monitor for replacement instruments. The Revocation Regulations do not state whether a replacement instrument will be made. Keep watch for new subordinate instruments or amendments to the OHS Act that might re-impose notification duties or create alternative reporting requirements.

9. Note lifecycle and publication details. Record that the Revocation Regulations were made and commenced on 14 January 2022 and that they will sunset on 14 January 2032 pursuant to the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 s 5 (Endnote 1). Where regulatory history matters (for compliance audits, litigation or legislative tracing), annotate the statutory timeline.

10. Consider contractual implications. If contracts, supply agreements or insurance policies incorporated duties from S.R. No. 93/2021, analyse whether removal of that statutory reference affects contractual rights or obligations and whether parties need to renegotiate or issue notices.

These steps use only the instrument's own text as the baseline: the Revocation Regulations (Reg 1-3) and the endnotes (making, commencement, identity of revoked instrument, ILA interpretative provisions and sunset under the Subordinate Legislation Act). They are practical compliance actions to implement in response to the revocation recorded in S.R. No. 1/2022.