Brunetto, Yvonne, Farr-Wharton, Ben, Hernandez-Grande,, Aglae, Onnis, Leigh-Ann, and Huuskes, Lee (2025) Government action on implementing Work Health & Safety policy - evaluating a pilot 'Budge' tool. In: ANZAM Conference Proceedings. p. 40. From: ANZAM 2025, 2-4 December 2025, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

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Abstract

This paper examines the value of a Budge intervention tool Directing Safety. The tool was introduced to support the behavioural changes required to successfully implement Work, Health and Safety (WHS) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (WHSOLA Act). The WHSOLA Act places responsibility on Board directors as “duty holders” for ensuring workers are protected from physical and psychosocial harm in the workplace, aligning to SDG#3 and SDG#8. The aim of the study was to explore whether a budge intervention tool could educate and guide Board directors towards behaviour consistent with the recent Australian WHS legislation.

The methods involving trialling the tool on 19 Board directors from mining, energy, education and not-for-profit organisations.

The evaluation found that the tool provided a useful, credible and effective structure and process for Board directors, suggesting that the Budge intervention tool will nudge behavioural change for two reasons. First, it is a complementary government tool, so that Board directors already have a reason to use the tool to improve their WHS stewardship and comply with the legislation. Second the tool was co-designed using the Beliefs - Barriers - Context (BBC) methodology. The findings provide support for greater use by governments of the Nudge-Budge methodology as a cost-effective complementary tool for facilitating prosocial behaviour change.

Item ID:	90481
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
ISBN:	978-1-7645272-0-0
Keywords:	WHS, prosocial behaviour, budge tool, safety, board governance
Copyright Information:	© The author(s) 2025.
Projects and Grants:	Centre for WHS, NSW Government
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2026 04:10
FoR Codes:	35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3505 Human resources and industrial relations > 350505 Occupational and workplace health and safety @ 70% 35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3505 Human resources and industrial relations > 350503 Human resources management @ 30%
SEO Codes:	11 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 1103 Property, business support services and trade > 110302 Professional, scientific and technical services @ 20% 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2305 Work and labour market > 230506 Workplace safety @ 80%
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