SFAIRP

SFAIRP is the phrase Australian work health and safety law uses for the primary duty of care: risks must be eliminated, or if that is not reasonably practicable, minimised so far as is reasonably practicable. The model WHS Act spells out what "reasonably practicable" weighs: the likelihood of the hazard, the degree of harm, what the duty-holder knows or ought to know, the availability and suitability of controls — and only after all of that, whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

Two consequences follow for anyone who owns a hazard. First, ignorance is not a defence — "ought reasonably to know" makes the state of knowledge (codes of practice, industry guidance, known control options) part of the duty. Second, the demonstration is control-shaped: to show SFAIRP you show which controls exist, which further controls you considered, and why the ones you rejected were not reasonably practicable. That is a bowtie, whether or not you draw it as one.

SFAIRP and ALARP are siblings — UK regimes say ALARP, Australian WHS says SFAIRP, and courts and regulators treat the underlying test as materially the same. Use the one your jurisdiction uses; build the same evidence either way.

For a WHS-flavoured worked example — including the psychosocial duty that Australian regulators are pressing hardest on — see the psychosocial hazards bowtie, built on the WA Code of Practice.