Workers on roofs without harnesses, no scaffolding and no fall protection.

Left shocked at what she has witnessed, the new work health and safety commissioner made a commitment to change.

But this isn't a crackdown, she says. It's the start of her mission to reform and create a safer industry.

Ms Agius, who started in the role in late-April, had visited the construction sites with inspectors to gain an understanding of how the organisation operated.

"I remember driving away with one of my inspectors and feeling an overwhelming sense of doom thinking we are driving away from here on a Friday and anything could happen over the weekend or next week," Ms Agius said.

"I have these images in my head of quite young men on top of half built houses putting frames on roofs without any harnesses, without any fall protection, without any scaffolding and it's frightening."

So Ms Agius decided it was time to do something. Shortly after the visits she called a meeting with key people in WorkSafe ACT and consulted with industry.

Work started on a plan and "Operation Safe Prospect" was born - a name that pays tribute to two workers who died in separate incidents on different Denman Prospect construction sites earlier this year.

"It seemed to be very well known we had safety issues in the area of residential construction and so we started working here on a plan," Ms Agius said.

"We had the two deaths in Denman Prospect earlier this year and when we thought of our name, we took it from Denman Prospect and safety.

"Nobody should go to work and die, everybody should come home at the end of the day."

The campaign will see inspectors conducting a mass action across greenfield development suburbs. Ms Agius said a large group of inspectors will target one suburb at a time and inspections would cover the entire suburb.

"We are covering a whole suburb, we're looking at the compliance in work health and safety, we're very visual, everyone knows we are there," she said.

WorkSafe has already covered Denman Prospect and Watson. From those raids more than 30 sites have been issued stop work notices.

When Ms Agius was out an inspection in Denman Prospect a construction worker asked if they were doing a blitz, but she was quick to tell the worker it was more than that.

"We're not going a blitz, we're actually doing an inspection and we'll be back this isn't the only one," she replied.

Ms Agius said the organisation would would on the program for the next three years.

"Our campaign is very much we're here and we're here to stay," she said.

"We won't leave the residential construction space until we have created a strong safety culture and I'm absolutely committed to doing that."

While the construction industry is most commonly associated with WorkSafe ACT, the regulator represents all work places in Canberra.

"One of my aims for [WorkSafe] is for us to be a regulator for all workplaces and for all people in the ACT and when I saw that I mean some of the industries we don't traditionally associate with work health and safety like the people services industries," Ms Agius said.

The regulator will also start to regulate "psycho-social hazards", Ms Agius said it's one of her priorities.

"Psycho-social hazards lead to psychological injuries... when people start to think of psychological injuries they start to think of harassment but it's much broader than that," she said.

"I would go so far as to say that any work health and safety risk is potentially a psycho-social hazard."

Ms Agius' passion for work health and safety is a personal one. It came after she experienced a "serious occupational violent incident" as a teacher 25 years ago. She left teaching due to the incident and studied law. She was a criminal lawyer but moved into employment law and then became an in-house lawyer for the Australian Education Union.

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Ms Agius took the helms at a pivotal time for the organisation. In July, WorkSafe ACT became independent from the ACT government where it sat under Access Canberra, and before that the Office of Regulatory Services.

This followed a damning independent review that found the organisation had a low degree of autonomy. Unions had accused WorkSafe ACT of softening its approach to work safety after it had been folded into Access Canberra in 2015.

"An independent WorkSafe is extremely important for regulating our legislation in that it means nobody can direct me. Work health and safety in the ACT are all about my decisions," Ms Agius said.

The decision for an independent WorkSafe was broadly welcomed by the industry.

"UnionsACT welcomed the establishment of an independent WorkSafe by the Barr Labor government earlier this year and we are pleased to see that it has a strong focus of ensuring employers are adhering to their safety obligations," UnionsACT secretary Matthew Harrison said.

Master Builders ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins said it was important the ACT had an independent regulator. But he said there were gaps in the ACT's regulatory system.

"Safety will only improve in the residential sector if government, the safety regulator, house builders, subcontractors and workers cooperate to foster a strong safety culture," he said.

"Significant gaps in the ACT's building regulatory system mean poor quality builders continue to hold a building license, and most subcontractors don't require any license in the ACT, meaning the good quality operators are forced to compete with those willing to cut corners on safety and quality."