Australia Model Code of Practice: Work Health and Safety Consultation, Cooperation and Coordination 5.0: 5 Retain your own duty where duties are shared, and coordinate with other duty holders

Where more than one person has a duty for the same matter, each keeps responsibility for it and must discharge it to the extent they can influence and control the matter (WHS Act s 16), and each must so far as reasonably practicable consult, cooperate and coordinate with all others who have a duty on that matter (s 46). Duty holders often assume someone else will act, so nobody does. A PCBU must ensure requirements are met even where others also have the duty, which it may do by making sure another person acts rather than acting itself, for example checking that toilets provided by another party are clean, in working order and accessible. What is reasonably practicable depends on the nature of the work and extent of interaction: two contractors may talk directly while a large shopping centre owner may need written agreements and consultative committees.