Page 774 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 March 2019
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benefits through the motor accident injury scheme or through their workers compensation arrangements. The exposure draft indicated that this decision would be made within one month of an accident. Under the amended legislation, injured workers will now have 13 weeks to seek advice and consider the circumstances of their accident before finalising their choice of scheme. This represents the time period during which the defined benefits on offer through both schemes are most directly equivalent. After this point, the calculation and provision of defined benefits differs between the two schemes, so it is appropriate that an injured person elect a channel through which to access their treatment, their care and their income support.
Importantly, however, a decision about which scheme to access defined benefits through does not lock in a worker to that scheme for any common law claim they might make for their injury. For example, if a worker is injured on the road whilst at work they may access defined benefits through the motor accident injury scheme but later sue at common law through the workers compensation scheme if there was negligence on the part of their employer. Similarly, a worker may access defined benefits through their workers compensation scheme and then pursue action through common law if they meet the 10 per cent WPI threshold and someone else was at fault. I want to particularly acknowledge my colleagues Bec Cody and Michael Pettersson, and the ACT union movement, for their advocacy on these specific issues, which has ensured that the rights of Canberra workers are front and centre as we proceed with improving our motor accident injury scheme.
The bill has also been updated to very clearly step out where and how people can access external reviews of insurer decisions if they believe that they are not getting a fair deal. The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal will hear disputes about defined benefits in the new scheme, with a new jurisdiction to be established that can hear matters of any value. The ACAT provides a low cost and accessible place for Canberrans to seek external review and to resolve disputes, ensuring that legal costs and court fees do not create an obstacle to people disputing decisions about their treatment and care if they need to. The ACAT will also be given the power to award costs for disputes to help make sure that insurers or other parties do not take vexatious legal action to avoid their clear and legitimate obligations under the scheme.
Common law claims for those people who are more seriously injured will continue to be heard in the ACT Magistrates Court or Supreme Court, as they are now. Injured people will be able to be legally represented in either place if they choose to do so, but they will not have to be legally represented. There are a number of further updates and amendments to this bill that are stepped out in the government response and explanatory statement.
I would like at this point to thank and acknowledge the ACT Greens for their constructive engagement on this legislation, which has led to a number of these changes. This includes lengthening the period for which people can access income replacement benefits after retirement age, amending limitations to ensure that only serious criminal or road rule breaches affect people’s access to benefits, and ensuring that people who continue to need medical treatment after five years but are not
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