SiteGuard Systems

Document Use Disclaimer and Notice of PCBU Responsibilities

SG-LEGAL-01, version 0.4, 18 October 2026

This notice accompanies every document, template, register, plan, procedure, policy, Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS), inspection and test plan, and bundle supplied by SiteGuard Systems, trading as SiteGuard FORMS ("SiteGuard", "we", "us"), to the purchaser ("you", "the Purchaser"). It explains what SiteGuard supplies, what it does not supply, and the responsibilities that stay with you as the person conducting the business or undertaking that will use the documents.

1. What SiteGuard supplies

SiteGuard supplies document templates and frameworks: pre-formatted Safe Work Method Statements, inspection and test plans, forms, registers, management plans, procedures and policies, drawn from a controlled, version-managed library. Each document reflects SiteGuard's general understanding of the common hazards, controls and administrative requirements of its subject, current as at the revision date shown on that document. SiteGuard reviews the library against legislative change every 6 months. Subscribers receive the revised documents that result from those reviews for as long as their subscription is active.

A SiteGuard document is a starting point, not a finished, site-specific safety system. It was not prepared with knowledge of your site, workforce, plant, subcontract arrangements, project conditions or risk profile, and it cannot be treated as site-specific until you have reviewed, adapted and verified it as clause 3 describes.

2. Who remains responsible — the PCBU

Under the Work Health and Safety Act, and the equivalent duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 in Victoria, the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) holds a primary, personal and non-delegable duty of care for the health and safety of workers and others affected by the work. The PCBU is ordinarily you, the Purchaser. That duty is not transferred, reduced or discharged by buying, receiving, printing or holding a SiteGuard document. Supplying a document is not the exercise of your duty; using it properly is.

The PCBU's own, ongoing responsibilities include:

  • Consultation: consulting workers, and other duty holders where relevant, on health and safety matters that directly affect them, including before a new or amended document is put into use.
  • Review and adaptation: reviewing every document against the actual site, task, plant, environment and workforce before relying on it, and amending it where it doesn't accurately describe the work, the hazards or the controls that will actually be applied.
  • Information, training and instruction: making sure the workers and others who work to a document get the information, training, instruction and supervision they need to understand it and do the work safely.
  • Implementation: putting the document into practice on site (sign-on, toolbox talks, supervision, monitoring), not just holding a copy on file.
  • Currency and review: updating the document when the work, site conditions, legislation or codes of practice change, or when an incident or near miss shows the controls are inadequate. Using SiteGuard's 6-monthly revisions doesn't replace your own review.
  • Flow-down: making sure every subcontractor, labour-hire worker or other person engaged for the work gets the correct, current, site-adapted version, and the same consultation, training and supervision.

These responsibilities sit with the PCBU whatever the source of the document, and whether or not SiteGuard's formatting or branding appears on it.

3. Before you rely on a document

Before a SiteGuard document is issued to a worker, used on a live site or relied on for compliance, you should:

  • review its content line by line against the actual work, site conditions, plant and materials;
  • confirm that the hazards, controls, legislation and standards cited are current and apply in the state or territory where the work is done;
  • consult the workers who will do the work, and amend the document to reflect that consultation;
  • have it reviewed and approved under your own management system and, where appropriate, by a person with relevant WHS qualifications or experience; and
  • keep it current for as long as the work it describes continues.

4. What SiteGuard does not provide

  • SiteGuard does not provide legal advice. Nothing in a SiteGuard document or in this notice is legal advice. Get your own independent legal and WHS advice for your circumstances.
  • SiteGuard does not carry out a site-specific risk assessment, does not inspect your site or workplace, and does not verify that a document as supplied is suitable, complete or compliant for your circumstances.
  • SiteGuard does not guarantee any certification, accreditation, audit or regulatory outcome from using a document.
  • Buying, receiving or using a document doesn't create a consulting, advisory or agency relationship between SiteGuard and the Purchaser. It doesn't make SiteGuard a PCBU, employer or duty holder for your workers, site or undertaking.

5. Limitation of liability

  1. To the maximum extent permitted by law, SiteGuard's liability in connection with a document supplied under this notice is limited, at SiteGuard's election, to resupplying the document or refunding the amount paid for it.
  2. Nothing in this notice excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified, including any consumer guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law. Nor does it exclude, restrict or purport to transfer any non-delegable duty that a PCBU holds under work health and safety legislation.

6. Acknowledgement

By buying, receiving or using a document supplied by SiteGuard, the Purchaser acknowledges that it has read and understood this notice. It accepts that it keeps full responsibility, as the PCBU or on behalf of the PCBU that engaged it, for the review, adaptation, consultation, training, implementation and ongoing currency of every document it buys.

SiteGuard Systems, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Read this notice together with the SiteGuard FORMS Terms of Sale.