To date, August 2013, the Commonwealth, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, ACT, and the NT have enacted the harmonised Work Health & Safety legislation. Victoria and Western Australia have not implemented this model.

This harmonised model states a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of other persons is not put at risk from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking. They must also provide such information, instruction, and training to, and supervision of, the employees as is necessary to enable them to perform their work in such a manner that they are not exposed to hazards.

The Victorian OHS Act 2004 and the Victorian OHS Regulations 2007 states that employers must, so far as reasonably practicable, provide and maintain for employees of the employer a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

If these Regulations require an employer to control any particular risk, the employer must provide each employee of the employer who may be exposed to the risk with sufficient information, instruction and training in relation to the following matters as are necessary to enable the employee to perform his or her work in a manner that is safe and without risks to health

Underneath this banner falls the Worksafe Code of Practice: Manual Handling, Victorian WorkSafe Guidelines: Transferring People Safely and Worksafe’s A Guide to Designing Workplaces for Safer Handling of People.

The West Australian Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 states that an employer shall, so far as is practicable, provide and maintain a working environment in which the employees are not exposed to hazards and in particular, an employer shall provide such information, instruction, and training to, and supervision of, the employees as is necessary to enable them to perform their work in such a manner that they are not exposed to hazards.

Under this act lies the Code of Practice for Manual Tasks 2010 governing manual handling in WA.

In New Zealand Healthcare, the Health and Safety Employment Act (1992) states that it is the responsibility of both employers and employees to ensure workplaces provide a safe work environment through hazard identification and controls.

New Zealand has also released Patient Handling Guidelines in 2012

Texas was the first state to pass legislation requiring hospitals and nursing homes to implement a safe patient handling and movement policy. The law took effect on January 1, 2006. Since then a number of other states have mandated safe patient handling policies and programs and even more currently have legislative activity related to safe patient handling.