Electrical work is among the most heavily regulated activities under Australian WHS legislation. Whether you are replacing a meter box on the Gold Coast, commissioning a distribution board on a Sydney high-rise or testing cables in a Brisbane data centre, you need a site-specific Safe Work Method Statement before the job starts. Tradietool drafts your electrical SWMS from a 30-second voice note, ready for you to review and approve. Free during the beta.
A Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) is a legal document that identifies the high-risk construction work (HRCW) activities involved in an electrical job, describes the hazards associated with those activities, and specifies the risk controls that will be applied. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and WHS Regulation in Queensland and NSW, a SWMS must be prepared before high risk construction work starts (reg 299).
For electricians, the key trigger is HRCW Category 11 — work on or near energised electrical installations. This includes live switchboard work, testing under power, energised cable terminations and any task where the risk of electric shock or arc flash cannot be eliminated by isolation alone.
In NSW the work health and safety regulator is SafeWork NSW. In Queensland it is Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, and the Electrical Safety Office looks after electrical safety under the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld). The rules for each state: electrical SWMS in NSW and electrical SWMS in Queensland.
A well-prepared SWMS for electrical work must be specific — not a generic template. It must name the actual task, the actual site, the actual hazards present on that day, and the specific controls that will be used. Tradietool achieves this by transcribing your 30-second voice description of the job and running it through an AI pipeline built on Queensland and NSW electrical safety rules. You review and approve the draft before work starts.
Where they apply to the job, your SWMS should name each of these hazards and say how it is controlled.
Work on or near energised conductors, switchboards and distribution boards. Controls include isolation verification, test-before-touch procedures and approved voltage-rated PPE.
Sudden release of energy from an electrical arc event. Controls include arc-rated FR clothing and a face shield rated to the incident energy of the task, and voltage-rated gloves.
Lockout/Tagout sequences to establish an electrically safe work condition. Each circuit must be isolated, locked, tested for absence of voltage and tagged before work begins.
Electrical work where someone could fall more than 2 metres (switchboards, overhead services, cable trays) is also HRCW 1, on top of HRCW 11. The SWMS has to cover both.
Speak the job. Tradietool extracts the hazards, drafts controls for electrical work under the Queensland and NSW WHS rules, and produces a PDF for PCBU review.
Yes. Under the Work Health and Safety Regulation in Queensland and NSW, work on or near energised electrical installations or services is High Risk Construction Work (HRCW) category 11 (reg 291). A SWMS must be prepared before high risk construction work starts (reg 299). The SWMS must identify the hazards and say how the risks will be controlled.
There is no single rating for all switchboard work. The arc rating (cal/cm²) of the clothing and face shield has to match the incident energy of the task. AS/NZS 4836 is the safe-working standard for low-voltage electrical work, including choosing arc flash PPE. Tradietool's draft lists arc-rated clothing and a face shield, with the rating to be matched to the incident energy of the task you describe.
Not without reviewing it. A SWMS must be prepared before the high risk construction work starts (reg 299) and must describe the actual hazards and controls for that work. A generic template reused across multiple sites without review will not reflect the job in front of you. Tradietool drafts a separate SWMS for each job, with hazards, controls and emergency contacts drawn from your voice description of that specific task and site.
Speak the job for 30 seconds and review a draft electrician SWMS before your crew starts.
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