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Work Health and Safety Act 2011
31Negligence or reckless conduct—category 1
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31 Negligence or reckless conduct—category 1
(1) A person commits a category 1 offence if—
(b) the person, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct
that—
(i) exposes an individual to whom the duty is owed to a risk
of death or serious injury or illness; or
(ii) if the person is an officer of a person conducting a business
or undertaking—exposes an individual, to whom the
person conducting a business or undertaking owes a health
and safety duty, to a risk of death or serious injury or
illness; and
(c) the person—
(i) engages in the conduct with negligence; or
(ii) is reckless as to the risk to an individual of death or serious
injury or illness.
(a) for an individual—category 1 monetary penalty or
imprisonment for 10 years or both; or
(b) for a body corporate—category 1 monetary penalty.
Note Strict liability applies to s (1) (a) (see s 12A).
(2) The prosecution has the burden of proving that the conduct was
engaged in without reasonable excuse.
(3) A category 1 offence is declared to be an indictable offence.
Note An indictable offence is an offence punishable by imprisonment for
longer than 2 years or an offence declared by an ACT law to be an
indictable offence (see Legislation Act, s 190 (1)).