Information about the inquiry
On 7 December 2006, the provisions
of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation
and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2006
were referred to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education
Committee for examination and report by 20 February 2007.
The bill addresses concerns about
the cost pressure on the current
scheme as a consequence of
higher and increased
claims. The amendments
are intended to tighten the conditions under
which claims for compensation may be made, and to broaden the scope of
factors determining incapacity benefits.
In pursuit of these policy changes, the principal amendments
will :
- amend the definition of
‘disease’
to strengthen the connection between the disease and the employee’s
employment;
- amend the definition of
‘injury’
to exclude injuries arising from reasonable administrative action taken
in a reasonable manner;
- remove claims for non
work-related journeys and recess breaks where the employer has no
control over the activities of the employee;
- amend the calculation of retirees’ incapacity benefits to
take account of changes in interest rates and superannuation fund
contributions;
- update measures for
calculating benefits for employees, including the definitions of 'normal
weekly earnings' and 'superannuation scheme';
- ensure that all potential
earnings from suitable employment can be taken into account when
determining incapacity payments;
- enable determining
authorities to directly reimburse health care providers for the cost of
their services to injured employees ; and
- increase the maximum funeral benefits payable .
The bill also includes minor
technical amendments to the Safety,
Rehabilitation and Compensation
Act 2004, including a substantial
number of amendments which are consequential on the commencement of the
Legislative Instruments Act 2003 on 1 January 2005.
In addition, an amendment to the funeral benefit provisions of the
Military Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2004 is proposed
to maintain parity with benefits under the SRC Act.
Submissions are due by 22 January 2007.
It is likely that the committee will hold a public hearing for this
inquiry, probably in Melbourne on 31 January 2007. Confirmation of this
will be found on the website closer to the time.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02) 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at: http://access.adobe.com/. If you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact the committee secretary.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia