Fewer WHS prosecutions, a 33% jump in the average penalty

On 1 September 2026, Safe Work Australia refreshed its national WHS prosecution dashboard with 2025 figures. There were 308 prosecutions finalised in 2025, down from 321 in 2024, which breaks a four-year run of year-on-year increases. The average financial penalty per prosecution reached $147,985, the highest annual average recorded, a 33 per cent rise on 2024. Ninety-nine per cent of prosecutions resulted in a financial penalty. The two numbers move in opposite directions, and the combination is the point. Fewer matters are reaching court, but the ones that do are being penalised more heavily. That is a signal about how seriously courts are treating WHS breaches, not a sign that pressure is easing. It lands at a moment when psychosocial enforcement is still a gap in the record. More than 60 days after the NSW Code of Practice became an enforceable benchmark, there is not one psychosocial prosecution nationally. That absence is often read as reassurance. The penalty data points the other way: it describes the environment the first psychosocial case will be decided in, not a reason to expect it will be lenient. The practical implication is about the value of contemporaneous evidence. When the expected cost of an adverse finding rises, the worth of a clean, dated record rises with it. A hazard register that names each risk, controls assigned to named owners, a review cycle that is actually run, and a consultation trail that shows workers were asked, are all worth more against a $147,985 average penalty than they were against a smaller one. A file reconstructed after a notice arrives is worth correspondingly less. The number to take into a board or executive discussion is the 33 per cent. It reframes psychosocial documentation from a compliance chore to a loss-mitigation measure, in terms a risk committee already understands.