Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00422:body:0:p3
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00422
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 5179–8058

be complied with.

1. INTRODUCTION

Plant is a major cause of workplace death and injury in Australian workplaces. There are significant risks associated with using plant and severe injuries can result from the unsafe use of plant including:
    * limbs amputated by unguarded moving parts of machines
    * being crushed by mobile plant
    * sustaining fractures from falls while accessing, operating or maintaining plant
    * electric shock from plant that is not adequately protected or isolated, and
    * burns or scalds due to contact with hot surfaces, or exposure to flames or hot fluids.
Other risks include hearing loss due to noisy plant and musculoskeletal disorders caused by manually handling or operating plant that is poorly designed.

1.1 The meaning of key terms
Plant includes any machinery, equipment, appliance, container, implement and tool, and includes any component or anything fitted or connected to any of those things. Plant includes items as diverse as lifts, cranes, computers, machinery, conveyors, forklifts, vehicles, power tools and amusement devices.

Plant that relies exclusively on manual power for its operation and is designed to be primarily supported by hand, for example a screw driver, is not covered by the WHS Regulations. The general duty of care under the WHS Act applies to this type of plant.
Certain kinds of plant, such as forklifts, cranes and some pressure equipment, require a licence from the WHS regulator to operate and some high-risk plant must also be registered with the WHS regulator.

Competent person means a person who has acquired through training, qualification or experience the knowledge and skills to carry out the task.
A competent person has a more specific meaning in the following circumstances:

    * For design verification, the person must have the skills, qualifications, competence and experience to design the plant or verify the design.
    * For inspection of plant for registration purposes the person must have
       * educational or vocational qualifications in an engineering discipline relevant to the plant being inspected, or
       * knowledge of the technical standards relevant to the plant being inspected.
    * For inspection of mobile cranes, tower cranes and amusement devices the person must
          + have the skills, qualifications, competence and experience to inspect the plant, and be registered under a law that provides for the registration of professional engineers (in jurisdictions where such a law exists), or
          + be determined by the WHS regulator to be a competent person.

    * Fail safe means a state or condition where, if any component or function of the plant fails,
      a system exists to prevent any increase in the risks. For example, if the primary hoist brake fails on a crane lifting a person in a workbox, the secondary hoist brake will