Asbestos duties for workplaces, body corporates and schools

Who carries the duty

Under Queensland’s Work Health and Safety Regulation, the obligations sit with the person conducting the business or undertaking (PCBU) and the person with management or control of the workplace ^[1]. That’s a broad net — it’s not just factory owners. It commonly captures:

• Commercial and industrial operators and their landlords;
• Body corporates and building managers, for the common property of strata buildings used as workplaces;
• Schools and other institutions;
• Owners of domestic premises that are also a workplace — for example, a rented property when tradespeople carry out renovation or demolition.

The duty doesn’t lapse because a building is old or rarely touched.

What you actually have to do

The Regulation requires you to manage the risk, which in practice means ^[1][2]:

1. Identify asbestos (or presume it’s present, per the guidance) wherever it’s likely to be in the workplace — sampling and testing where certainty is needed.
2. Record it in an asbestos register — location, type and condition.
3. Prepare a written asbestos management plan — how the material is monitored, controlled, and communicated to workers and contractors.
4. Keep both current and accessible to workers and their health-and-safety representatives, and review them as the site changes.
5. Ensure the exposure standard isn’t exceeded, and provide health monitoring to workers doing licensed removal or other ongoing asbestos work ^[2].

Before any demolition or refurbishment of a structure built before 31 December 2003, you must — so far as reasonably practicable — identify and remove asbestos that’s likely to be disturbed first ^[2].

The general exemption

The main exception is a building constructed after 31 December 1989 where no asbestos has been identified or is likely to be present ^[1]. Anything older should be treated as in-scope until an assessment confirms otherwise.

Why it’s worth getting right

Operating a workplace with asbestos and no compliant register or plan exposes you to regulator action and serious liability if someone is exposed. A current register and management plan is both the legal requirement and your protection — the document you can produce for a regulator, insurer, contractor, buyer or board.

We prepare compliant registers and management plans, run the periodic audits that keep them current, and — where material needs removing — the licensed field team handles testing and removal, so identification, compliance and works stay under one accountable group.