Page 1601 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 May 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I can quite easily produce, when the day is at end, the documents and table something and prove that I am not guessing and that work is afoot to see that the community is properly represented on it. I thank Mr Connolly again for the question, and I would welcome a supplementary question.
MR CONNOLLY: By way of a supplementary question, I take it that the short answer is no; that, despite the announcement some six weeks ago that this will be established, no-one has been appointed.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I hope that Mr Connolly has a long and distinguished career in the law and politics and that, when and if he becomes Attorney in this Territory and gets the challenge of moving the law along, he will understand that six weeks is not long in the law and not very long at all when you are forming a law reform committee in this Territory. Nevertheless, I welcome his impatience on the issue and I will brief him on it.
Workers Compensation
MR STEFANIAK: My question is directed to the Minister for Finance and Urban Services. What does the Government intend to do to assist ACT workers who will be affected by the collapse of the National Employers Mutual Insurance Company?
MR DUBY: Thank you for the question, Mr Stefaniak. Members may be aware that there is an insurance company called the National Employers Mutual Insurance Company which has been writing workers compensation insurance for many years. It was a British based firm and has recently gone into liquidation. Some concern has been expressed about the plight of ACT workers who may have been covered by that organisation. People will be pleased to know that the National Employers Mutual Insurance Company has not written workers compensation business in the ACT for about five years. However, it is known that a number of claims involving that company are still to be finalised.
I understand that a provisional liquidator was appointed on 1 May in the New South Wales Supreme Court to take control of the affairs of the company. My labour division is liaising with the litigator so that claimants in the Territory are not disadvantaged. Mr Speaker, it is expected that adequate funds will be available from a special fund established for such contingencies following the failure of another workers compensation insurer in 1980, to allow payments to continue with a minimum of disruption. I guess the bottom line in the answer is that ACT workers will not be disadvantaged because of the failure of this workers compensation insurance company.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .