Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all members for their contributions to this debate on the second reading of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2011. This bill implements the government's response to the review of the Comcare scheme. It also introduces certain associated amendments. In late 2007 we undertook to review the Comcare scheme—in particular, its self-insurance arrangements, which provide for the entry of private sector corporations into the scheme. This review was designed to ensure that the Comcare scheme has suitable occupational health and safety and workers compensation arrangements for self-insurers and their employees.

The bill implements improvements arising from the review through amendments to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988—the SRC Act. It also makes amendments that respond to policy issues unrelated to the review that address Comcare's access to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as well as workers compensation coverage for employees working in high-risk environments overseas. To encourage the timely determination of workers compensation claims, the bill amends the SRC Act to enable the setting of statutory time limits within which claims must be determined. This is because claims determined quickly tend to be shorter in duration and less costly. In addition, the bill amends the SRC Act so that medical and related costs will continue to be paid when a worker has their compensation benefits suspended for refusing to participate in the rehabilitation process.

The bill also reinstates workers compensation coverage for off-site recess breaks. This will realign the Comcare scheme with the schemes of most jurisdictions and remove the inequity in coverage for employees whose employers do not provide on-site facilities for meal breaks.

In the coalition senators' minority report on the Occupational Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009, senators recommended that the bill be amended to continue to exclude workers compensation claims arising from injuries sustained during off-site recess breaks. The government does not support this recommendation. A number of practical difficulties have resulted from the April 2007 removal of coverage of off-site recess breaks. These problems include the inequity of coverage for employees whose employers do not provide on-site facilities for recess breaks.

There is also the difficulty of determining what would or would not constitute an off-site recess break. One example is when employees are required to work off-site, such as Telstra technicians whose usual place of work is their vehicle. A further inconsistency arises in that an employee would be covered when attending employer sanctioned courses at educational institutions both during and outside normal work hours but might not be covered during lunch breaks. Reinstating workers compensation coverage during recess breaks does not mean that workers will be automatically covered for all injuries sustained during their breaks. Workers compensation is not payable in relation to self-inflicted injuries, injuries sustained as a result of serious or wilful misconduct on the part of the employee or injuries sustained because an employee voluntarily and unreasonably submitted to an abnormal risk of injury. Reinstatement of coverage of recess breaks will cost Comcare $1.7 million in 2010-11, indexed for future years.

The measures proposed in the bill are designed to improve the Comcare scheme by reducing injuries, strengthening the focus on rehabilitation and return to work and increasing benefits for injured workers. The bill also seeks to make a number of additional reforms to address issues that have arisen separately to the Comcare review. In particular, the bill amends the SRC Act to provide workers compensation coverage for injuries sustained while an employee is working in a declared place outside Australia or where the person is a member of a declared category of employees whose work requires deployment to places outside Australia.

The bill will allow the minister to declare certain high-risk places—for example, Afghanistan or Iraq—to be places where the SRC Act will be deemed to provide continuous coverage for all Commonwealth employees. The bill will also allow the minister to declare certain classes of employees to be covered while outside Australia. The need for this flexibility arises specifically in relation to the establishment of the Australian Civilian Corps, who will assist in disaster relief, stabilisation and post-conflict resolution in developing countries and failed states. The effect of these changes will be to provide 24/7 coverage under the SRC Act for employees exposed to unusually high risk while working outside Australia. The fiscal impact of these amendments will be in the order of $2 million per annum.

Other amendments to the SRC Act contained in this bill restore Comcare's access to the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay for its workers compensation liabilities and associated expenses arising from long-latency injury claims, such as those related to asbestos exposure. Comcare's access to the Consolidated Revenue Fund was closed off as an indirect result of a Federal Court decision in 2006. However, the intention of the SRC Act has been and still is that the Consolidated Revenue Fund should fund these claims because they relate to employment related injuries not covered by Comcare's premium system. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

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