If you’re the person responsible for safety in a Victorian workplace, you’ve probably been told there’s “no law” requiring an AED here. That’s true as far as it goes — Victoria has no AED-specific Act, and no bill has ever been tabled. But it’s not the end of the story, because the document that actually governs your first-aid obligations does talk about defibrillators. It’s the WorkSafe Victoria Compliance Code, and it’s worth understanding exactly what it says, what weight it carries, and what it expects of you.
This is the careful read for compliance and OHS managers — what the Code’s words mean, not a paraphrase of the headline.
First, what a compliance code actually is
This matters before we get to the AED bit, because the legal weight of the Code is the part most people get wrong.
A compliance code isn’t a law. It’s practical guidance, issued by WorkSafe Victoria under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), on how to meet a duty that the Act already imposes. The current one — Compliance Code: First Aid in the Workplace — came into effect on 4 November 2021, replacing the 2008 version. We re-checked it in June 2026 and it’s still the current edition; nothing has superseded it.
Here’s the bit that gives it teeth. If you follow the Code, you’re taken to have complied with the duty it relates to. You’re allowed to meet your duty a different way — the Code isn’t the only path — but if you do, you need to be able to show your alternative achieves an equivalent standard. And a compliance code is admissible in court as evidence of what was reasonably practicable at the time. So “it’s only a code, not a law” is a thin shield. The Code is the yardstick WorkSafe and a court will reach for when they ask whether you did enough.
The Code offers two ways to work through your first-aid needs: a prescribed approach (follow the set provisions) or a risk assessment approach (assess your specific workplace and respond to what you find). Both are legitimate. The AED question lives inside that assessment.
The underlying duty
The Code sits on top of section 21 of the OHS Act. Section 21(1) requires an employer to provide and maintain, “so far as is reasonably practicable,” a working environment that’s safe and without risks to health. Section 21(2)(d) adds a specific duty to provide “adequate facilities for the welfare of employees.”
The OHS Regulations 2017 give that some practical content for first aid, but — and this is important — the Regulations don’t name AEDs. There’s no regulation that says “you must have a defibrillator.” The detail of how you discharge the first-aid duty is left to the Compliance Code. So the Code isn’t a side document. For AEDs, it’s the main one.
What the Code says about AEDs — the actual words
The AED guidance sits at paragraphs 149 to 152 of the Code. The operative line is this: employers should “consider whether it is reasonably practicable to have an automated external defibrillator in the workplace as these are not difficult to use and save lives.”
Read that carefully, because every word is load-bearing.
- “Should consider” — not “must provide.” The Code does not mandate an AED. What it does mandate, in effect, is that you turn your mind to the question. The duty is to genuinely consider it, weigh it against your workplace’s risk profile, and make a reasoned decision.
- “Reasonably practicable” — this is the test that runs through the whole OHS Act. It balances the likelihood and severity of harm against the cost, difficulty and availability of the control. For an AED, the harm is catastrophic (sudden cardiac arrest is usually fatal without rapid defibrillation), the device is inexpensive relative to that harm, and it’s easy to use. That balance tilts toward “yes” more often than employers assume.
- “Not difficult to use and save lives” — the Code closes off the two excuses people reach for. You can’t argue the device is too complex for untrained staff (it talks you through it), and you can’t argue the benefit is speculative (defibrillation is the only thing that restarts a heart in a shockable rhythm).
The 2021 Code added this AED guidance — it wasn’t in the 2008 version. That addition is the signal. WorkSafe didn’t make AEDs mandatory, but it deliberately moved them from “not mentioned” to “should consider.” For a regulator, that’s a meaningful nudge.
What “consider” means in practice
This is where compliance managers earn their keep, because “consider” is not the same as “ignore,” and a decision not to install can be perfectly defensible — if it’s actually a decision.
The Code expects the question to be answered against your workplace’s risk profile. The factors that push toward installing an AED are the familiar ones: high foot traffic, an older or physically active workforce, large employee numbers, physically demanding work, or a setting where an ambulance would take a while to arrive. A quiet five-person office in the Melbourne CBD with an ambulance ten minutes away sits at one end. A 400-person manufacturing site in a regional town sits at the other.
The thing that gets employers into trouble isn’t deciding not to install. It’s never having genuinely asked. If a preventable cardiac death happens and there’s no record that anyone ever weighed the AED question, the “reasonably practicable” test gets very uncomfortable, and the Code is sitting right there as the yardstick. The protection isn’t the device alone — it’s a documented, reasoned assessment, with the device installed where that assessment points to it.
So the practical instruction is simple: do the assessment, write it down, and act on it. If your risk profile says install, install. If it genuinely says you don’t need one, record why. An undocumented “we didn’t think we needed it” is the weakest position to be in.
What the Code says about placement and registration
If you do install, the Code and WorkSafe’s supporting guidance are clear on two points:
Placement. AEDs “should be installed in well-known, visible and accessible locations. They should not be locked.” A defibrillator in a locked first-aid room that only one person has a key to defeats the purpose. The device needs to be somewhere staff know about and can reach in the two or three minutes that actually matter.
Registration. WorkSafe notes that “registration of AEDs in the workplace with Ambulance Victoria helps reduce the time taken to find an AED in an emergency.” Registration is voluntary in Victoria — there’s no legal requirement — but it’s free, it’s quick, and it puts your device on the map that Triple Zero call-takers and nearby GoodSAM responders can see. If you’ve gone to the trouble of installing one, registering it is the obvious finish. We’ve covered exactly how to do that in our Victorian AED registration guide.
Where this leaves a Victorian employer
The honest summary is this. Victoria doesn’t require you to have an AED. The Compliance Code requires you to consider whether you should — against a “reasonably practicable” test that, for many workplaces, points toward yes. The Code carries real evidential weight, so “it’s only guidance” isn’t the comfort it sounds like. And the cleanest way to satisfy the duty is to make a genuine, documented decision rather than to never ask the question.
If you want the broader picture of how that duty of care works in Victoria, our piece on Victorian OHS duty of care and AEDs covers it, and our construction-sector guide works through a setting where the assessment usually lands firmly on “install.”
Where SafePulse fits
We supply, install and maintain AEDs for Victorian workplaces, and most of our conversations start exactly where the Compliance Code does — with the “is it reasonably practicable for us” question. We can help you work through that assessment honestly, install the device where the Code wants it (visible, accessible, unlocked), register it with Ambulance Victoria, and keep it rescue-ready with a maintenance plan so the pads and battery never quietly expire.
If you’re working through your first-aid obligations and want to get the AED question right rather than guess at it, get in touch via our Victorian AED page.
