Does Victoria have a test and tag law?

Why Victoria has no test and tag regulation

Every other state and territory except Victoria and Western Australia runs on some version of the national model work health and safety scheme, which is where NSW's higher risk workplace test and the WHS Regulations more generally come from. Victoria kept its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and never made the switch, so there is no equivalent WHS Regulation, and no clause that names test and tag at all.

That does not mean testing is optional. WorkSafe Victoria is direct about it: obligations "fall under the general Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 duty", specifically the employer's duty to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, which WorkSafe says extends to "the provision, use, inspection, testing and maintenance of electrical equipment". There is no separate test and tag section to point to, the equipment testing duty is folded into the general plant and systems of work obligation.

What WorkSafe Victoria actually expects

With no regulation to set the interval, WorkSafe Victoria's own guidance does the job AS/NZS 3760 does everywhere else: it says the nature and frequency of inspection and testing "depends on factors such as the type of electrical equipment, the operating environment and how it is used", and directs businesses to AS/NZS 3760:2022 for the detailed recommended timeframes by risk area. It also expects visual inspection of leads and equipment before use, only competent people such as licensed electricians carrying out repairs, and records of the testing and maintenance program being kept.

For an inspector or an auditor, that means the practical bar is the same as everywhere else, a current AS/NZS 3760 based schedule, tags or records showing when each item was last tested and by whom, and evidence you've applied a shorter interval in a rougher environment. You just won't find a Victorian regulation number to cite for any of it, the paper trail is your evidence that the general duty was met.

Construction sites still have a standard to follow

WorkSafe Victoria publishes its own industry standard for electrical installations at construction sites, covering inspection and testing of construction wiring, RCD testing and competency for testing work on site. It sits alongside, rather than replaces, the general duty to provide safe plant, so a Victorian construction business still needs a testing regime for site equipment even though there is no dedicated Victorian regulation naming an interval.

The penalty sits at the general duty level

Because there is no dedicated test and tag clause, a failure to test equipment that leads to harm is prosecuted as a breach of the general employer duty under section 21 of the OHS Act 2004, provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, so far as reasonably practicable. That section carries a maximum penalty of 1,800 penalty units for an individual or 9,000 penalty units for a body corporate. At the $209.10 penalty unit value from 1 July 2026, that is up to $376,380 for an individual and $1,881,900 for a company, well above what a dedicated test and tag offence would carry in a model law state.