Ticked for the three categories electrical work normally triggers, with three rows written to edit. What it cannot know is your site, your isolation points and who else is working on that board, which is the half that decides whether the document is any use.
Isolating and proving dead is not paperwork
The sequence is prove the tester on a known live source, prove the circuit dead, then prove the tester again on the known source. Two of those three steps are about the instrument rather than the circuit, and skipping the second proving is how somebody works on a circuit their tester stopped reading half an hour ago.
One lock per person, and the lock comes off by the person who fitted it. A single lock fitted by a supervisor on behalf of four people is not isolation, it is a promise, and it fails the moment that supervisor goes home at four.
Live work needs a written reason, not a brave decision
Working live is permitted where it is not reasonably practicable to work dead, and the words that matter are not reasonably practicable. Inconvenient is not the test. A hospital theatre that cannot lose power mid-list is a reason; a client who would rather not lose the lighting circuit for an hour is not.
Where the answer genuinely is live, the SWMS has to say why dead was not possible, what the alternative was, and who decided. A safety observer, insulated tools and matting are the controls after that decision, not a substitute for making it.
A ceiling void is a confined space more often than people think
The confined space test is not about size. It is about whether the space is enclosed or partly enclosed, not designed for continuous occupancy, and has a risk from the atmosphere, engulfment or restricted access. A ceiling void with poor ventilation and one hatch meets all three more often than a plant room does.
The trap is deciding it once for the building. Voids differ floor by floor: one has a hatch at each end and a mechanical supply, the next has a single opening over a stairwell. Assess each one, and where it is a confined space, that entry needs a permit rather than a tick on this statement.
The category electricians leave off
Powered mobile plant moving in the area. Not operating it, not working on it, just being in the area where it is moving, and on a live site with a telehandler running that is most of the yard for most of the day.
It is the commonest reason an otherwise ordinary job turns out to be high risk construction work, and it is the one nobody ticks because it does not feel like your work. The plant does not have to be yours.
Testing and commissioning is a different activity
Installing is done dead. Commissioning is done live, by definition, because the whole point is to prove the thing works. That inverts most of the controls in the statement above, so it usually earns its own rather than sitting as a final line on the installation one.
The specific risk is that the site is no longer yours alone by the time you commission. Other trades are finishing, the boards are energised, and somebody who watched you work on a dead board last week has no reason to think this week is different. Barriers and signage at the board carry more weight during commissioning than at any other stage of the job.
Common questions
Do I need a SWMS for every electrical job in Australia?
No. A SWMS is required for high risk construction work specifically, which is a closed list. A lot of electrical work lands on it because working on or near energised installations is one of the categories, but a job with everything isolated and no other trigger is ordinary construction work under the general duty. The tool above answers that question before it writes anything.
Is working on or near energised services only about live work?
No, and the word near is doing real work in that sentence. Running cable past an energised board, working in a riser with live services in it, or drilling into a wall with an unproved circuit behind it all sit inside the category. It is why the honest answer is usually yes for refurbishment and often no for a new build before the supply is on.
Who monitors the control measures?
Somebody named, and the regulation asks for that specifically. It is the field every free template leaves out, because a method statement copied from Britain has no column for it. Naming a supervisor who is on site is worth more than naming a director who is not.
Can I use one SWMS for the whole electrical package?
You can, and a reviewer will usually send it back. One activity per statement is the working rule: a SWMS that covers first fix, second fix, the switchboard and commissioning describes none of them well enough to be followed. Separate ones are quicker to write and much quicker to get accepted.
Does the tool produce the document, or a template?
The document, as a PDF with your own company details on it rather than ours. The starter rows are a beginning and the tool will not let you download while every one of them is still our text, because a generic SWMS is the thing reviewers reject first.