Page 647 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020
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in Australia by providing a more contemporary and appropriate definition for workers compensation purposes. This aims to ensure continuity of cover for family day care educators in the territory. We support both elements of this bill and we will be voting in favour.
MS ORR (Yerrabi—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Disability, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety and Minister for Government Services and Procurement) (4.09), in reply: The Workers Compensation Amendment Bill 2019 makes several minor and technical amendments to the Workers Compensation Act 1951. While these amendments are minor, they are necessary to ensure that our legislation is clear and continues to account for contemporary work practices, language and definitions. The bill makes amendments to ensure that family day care educators continue to have access to workers compensation and to ensure the effective operation of the default insurance fund.
The default insurance fund provides a very important function in the context of the workers compensation scheme. It operates to provide workers with a safety net in situations where an injured worker is not able to claim from any other party. To achieve its purpose, the default insurance fund is designed to respond to situations and meet the cost of workers compensation claims where an employer is uninsured. It also responds where an employer’s insurer has wound up.
In recent times, some uncertainty has arisen that puts in doubt whether the default insurance fund is responsible for meeting the costs of claims in situations where both a contractor and a responsible principal contractor are uninsured. The legislation is clear in making the principal liable where a contractor may be uninsured. However, the current legislative drafting is not clear in making sure the default insurance fund responds where both the contractor and principal are uninsured.
The amendments in this bill will clarify the intention of the workers compensation scheme to support injured workers regardless of their employer’s and principal’s failure to hold a compulsory insurance policy. These situations are rare, where both the employer and principal are uninsured, and supporting injured workers so that they can return to work is critical for our workplaces and our communities.
This bill makes it clear that the default insurance fund will respond in these circumstances. Ensuring that we have a workers compensation scheme where no worker is able to fall through the gaps because of someone else’s failure to meet their obligations is a critical objective in maintaining our laws.
The bill will also make a minor technical amendments to correct any inconsistency that currently exists in the provisions that define premiums for the purposes of calculating the levy that supports the functions of the default insurance fund. By making this technical correction, it will ensure consistency between the information that is collected from insurers for calculating the levy and the information that is used to apportion the levy contribution amongst insurers.
This bill will also make amendments to the workers compensation legislation in relation to family day care and in-home care workers. Family day care educators
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