When safety decisions can’t be defended, projects stall, audits fail and liability risk grows.

Acmena’s SFAIRP training course teaches you how to apply So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable principles, giving you the knowledge and confidence to make decisions that are evidence-based, legally defensible and fully compliant with Australian WHS laws and safety standards.

Why this matters

Reducing risk SFAIRP is a legal obligation across all Australian safety-critical industries, from rail and infrastructure to construction, manufacturing, energy and defence. Yet many organisations struggle to successfully demonstrate that risks have been reduced to a level that is legally and practically acceptable.

This course offers a step-by-step framework for understanding what SFAIRP means, how to apply it in practice, and how to build safety arguments that satisfy your safety obligations under the Act – so the assets you deliver are both safe and reliable.

Why learn SFAIRP?

• Understand your obligations – Reducing risk SFAIRP is a legal obligation under Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws. For rail, the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL) adds sector-specific requirements, but the principle applies across virtually every industry.
• Make better risk decisions – SFAIRP principles help you identify hazards, assess likelihood and consequences, evaluate controls and justify why a control is (or isn’t) reasonably practicable.
• Design safety in from the start – SFAIRP is central to Safety in Design, driving proactive hazard identification early in the design phase before costly failures occur.
• Align your teams and stakeholders – a shared SFAIRP framework creates consistency between operators, contractors and interfaces and provides defensible foundations for design decisions, assurance arguments, and safety cases.
• Manage change with confidence – SFAIRP gives you a structured, defensible process for assessing any modification to a system, design, or process.

What’s involved?

Acmena’s training course is based on industry best practice and guidelines (including ONRSR’s SFAIRP Guidelines) and delivered by trainers with decades of hands-on experience on some of Australia’s largest rail infrastructure projects.

Participants will benefit from an interactive learning experience built around real-world case studies and practical exercises, so you leave with skills you can apply.

What you will learn

• What SFAIRP means and how it applies to your domain
• How to eliminate or minimise risk SFAIRP
• How to build a compelling argument that risk has been reduced SFAIRP
• How to evaluate risk and identify controls
• How to weigh safety benefits against cost and effort.

Course structure

• Why SFAIRP?
• What does “reasonably practicable” mean?
• How do you demonstrate risks have been reduced SFAIRP?
• What might this look like?
• Exercises
• Wrap up.

Course details and options 

Course duration: Half-day course (approx. 3 hours)

Delivery options: Available for public and private bookings via online and onsite delivery

2026 public courses (online): 

• Jun – Wed 17 (9am – 12pm)
• TBA
• TBA

Cost: $TBC + GST pp

Prerequisites: None

Enquiries: enquiries@acmena.com.au