COMPARISON OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION ARRANGEMENTS

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS SUMMARY OF 

SIGNIFICANT RECENT LEGISLATIVE CHANGES   JULY 2002

SEACARE AUTHORITY

The Authority completed a stage one review of the scheme legislation in August 2002, for advice to the Minister.

COMCARE

Legislative Reform   SRC Act

During the year, significant amendments to the SRC Act came into force.  The Safety, Rehabilitation and Other

Legislative Amendment Act 2001 (SRCOLA Act) received royal assent on 1 October 2001.  The legislative changes

have now been implemented.  The SRCOLA Act amended the SRC Act by:

enabling compensation payments to ex employees to be updated by reference to a prescribed index

clarifying that there is no entitlement under the SRC Act to a lump sum payment for non economic loss for a 

permanent impairment occurring prior to 1 December 1988, except where a claim has been lodged before the 

introduction of this amendment (7 December 2000)

clarifying provisions relating to the calculation of compensation

enabling all employees to receive weekly compensation payments beyond the age of 65 for a maximum period of

104 weeks if they are injured after the age of 63

ensuring that persons providing rehabilitation services meet acceptable standards, through a range of measures

ensuring that dependants of deceased employees are not barred from taking action at common law

improving access to compensation for permanent impairment for hearing loss

streamlining the existing complex licensing arrangements

amending provisions relating to premiums and regulatory contributions

amending various technical and miscellaneous provisions

including as a member of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission a member nominated by the 

Chief Minister of the ACT to represent the interests of ACT public sector employees.

SRC Act   penalty provisions

Since the Criminal Code was enacted in 1995, all Commonwealth legislation with criminal provisions has been

gradually amended to modernize and standardize the criminal law across the Commonwealth.  In line with this,

amendments were made to the penalty provisions in the SRC Act.

Regulations   supporting SRCOLA changes

On 27 March 2002, the Executive Council approved regulations to implement amendments made to the SRC Act in

Schedule 2 of the SRCOLA Act.  The regulations prescribe a number of matters essentially designed to streamline

licensing arrangements, to introduce new approval processes for rehabilitation providers and to clarify provisions

relating to compensation.  The Regulations implement the SRCOLA Act by prescribing:

additional categories of health professionals who can provide `medical treatment' as defined in the SRC Act, to 

enable the costs of such treatment to be reimbursed to the claimant without the need for referral to a medical 

practitioner (Regulation 17)

an index for determining the  appropriate amount of compensation for ex employees in relation to increases in 

normal weekly earnings.  There are also instructions for calculating the increase in normal weekly earnings 

(Part 2 of the Regulations)

the renewal periods for approval as a rehabilitation program provider, as well as the fees for applications for 

initial approval and renewal of that approval (Part 3 of the Regulations)

a `prescribed day' for the annual date by which information must be provided to Comcare for estimating salary 

and wages to be paid to employees during the next financial year (Regulation 19)

the form for an application for a licence, as well as the required particulars of the applicant, and other 

information and documents that must be contained in or accompany licence applications (Part 4 of the 

Regulations)

the consequences of revocation of a licence and suspension of a licence (Part 5 of the Regulations).

Heads of Workers' Compensation Authorities  45