Page 869 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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has been a feature of this element of workers compensation law since it was introduced after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The sunset clause is replaced by a requirement on the minister to review any temporary reinsurance funds set up in response to individual terrorist attacks. The minister must do so after 10 years and report to the Assembly. By these simple administrative changes, the bill provides the flexibility and certainty any government would require in relation to responding to terrorism events.
The government has available to it the legislated power to establish temporary reinsurance funds. These temporary reinsurance funds can be established to deal with and resolve any workers compensation claims arising from individual terrorist events. It became necessary after the insurance industry withdrew workers compensation insurance cover arising from terrorist events. Some have reintroduced cover offerings, but these generally have been prohibitively expensive.
Importantly, this bill does not enable the government to establish a single reinsurance fund in perpetuity. What it does do is enable the government to set up temporary reinsurance funds in response to all and any individual terrorist events into the future without the need to extend legislated sunset clauses. Temporary reinsurance funds would be closed down once workers compensation claims are dealt with and resolved and, as I mentioned earlier, would be subject to the minister’s review a decade after establishment.
The bill’s purpose makes sense, streamlines an administrative process and provides more flexibility. I am sure it is the fervent hope of all members in this place that no ACT government will ever need to use these provisions, but it is a preparatory defence mechanism and the Canberra Liberals will support it.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.34): This is a bill that ensures that ACT workers can have access to compensation payments if they are injured because of a terrorist attack.
The need for this legislation arose following the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11 2001, after which private sector insurers withdrew products that offered coverage for acts of terrorism. Since that time, a few insurers have re-entered the market. However, as Mrs Dunne noted, the products they offer that cover acts of terrorism are prohibitively expensive.
The ACT government established a scheme in 2002 to ensure that if any workers were injured or killed due to a terrorist attack, they or their family would be able to claim entitlements through the Workers Compensation Act. Effectively this makes the government the reinsurer for all insurance companies providing workers compensation coverage in the event of a terrorist attack. It means that all workers and their families will remain protected by insurance, despite the refusal of private insurance companies to offer coverage. The temporary scheme would be applicable to private sector ACT workers, as public sector workers or people in the ACT employed by the commonwealth are already covered by Comcare.
All Australian jurisdictions except for the Northern Territory provide similar protections where either workers are protected by a similar legislated scheme to
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