Page 2921 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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is our vision that ultimately everybody who is not employed in the public sector will be able to have their long service leave transferred from one industry to another. The challenge for us into the future is going to be having a scheme where a person can be, for example, a shop assistant during the day and a cleaner at night. If that particular individual works for 10 years or so continuously, they are entitled to long service leave from both sectors. At the moment, we do not have one single mechanism to allow them to achieve that. That is our aim and that is where we are heading. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mrs Dunne) adjourned to the next sitting.
Workers Compensation (Default Insurance Fund) Amendment Bill 2009
Mr Hargreaves, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability and Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections) (10.09): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Workers Compensation (Default Insurance Fund) Amendment Bill 2009 will amend the Workers Compensation Act 1951 to bring the Default Insurance Fund manager’s powers into line with those exercised by all private sector workers compensation insurers in the ACT.
In 2006, the Default Insurance Fund—the DI fund—was created. The fund is a result of the merger between two entities—the Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer and the Workers Compensation Supplementation Fund. The Default Insurance Fund meets the costs of workers compensation claims where (1) a worker suffers a work-related injury but their employer does not have a workers compensation insurance policy; or (2) their employer has a policy, but the insurer has collapsed or is otherwise unable to pay the claim.
The sole purpose of the Default Insurance Fund is to provide a safety net for the injured workers of the ACT to ensure that workers have access to timely and appropriate medical treatment, rehabilitation and compensation in the event that they have a workplace injury.
The funding to provide workers compensation benefits in the event that an employer is not insured is obtained through a combination of levies on the ACT’s private sector insurers, and thereby all ACT employers, interest on the levies, and from recoveries obtained from uninsured employers or other parties.
The Default Insurance Fund is, for all purposes, an insurer. However, under the current provisions of the fund the fund manager does not have the same powers as
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