Bills

Return to Work Bill

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Long title—After 'WorkCover Corporation Act 1994' insert:

, the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986

No. 2. Clause 2, page 11, line 5—Delete 'This Act' and substitute 'Subject to this section, this Act'

No. 3. Clause 2, page 11, lines 6 and 7—Delete subclause (2) and substitute:

(2) Part 7A of Schedule 9 will be taken to have come into operation on 1 July 2013 immediately after the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Firefighters) Amendment Act 2013 is taken to have come into operation.

(3) Clause 27 of Schedule 9 will come into operation on 1 January 2015.

No. 4. Clause 18, page 35, after line 9—Insert:

(6a) If on an application under subsection (3) the Tribunal declines to make an order in favour of the worker under subsection (5), the Corporation is liable, subject to subsection (7) and to limits prescribed by the regulations—

(a) for the employer's reasonable costs of the proceedings before the Tribunal (unless those costs are covered by an award under subsection (8)(a)); and

(b) for the costs payable to the worker under subsection (6).

No. 5. Clause 33, page 48, line 34—Delete 'reasonable and necessary and'

No. 6. Clause 33, page 48, line 39—Delete 'as follows' and substitute 'the necessary costs of'

No. 7. Clause 33, page 48, line 40—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 8. Clause 33, page 49, line 1—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 9. Clause 33, page 49, line 3—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 10. Clause 33, page 49, line 4—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 11. Clause 33, page 49, line 10—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 12. Clause 33, page 49, line 12—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 13. Clause 33, page 49, line 16—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 14. Clause 33, page 49, line 18—Delete 'the cost of'

No. 15. Clause 33, page 49, line 20—Delete paragraph (i) and substitute:

(i) other services (or classes of services) authorised by the Corporation.

No. 16. Clause 33, page 49, line 33—Delete 'unreasonable,'

No. 17. Clause 55, page 68, line 35—After 'subsection (4)' insert:

(but subject to subsections (6) and (6a))

No. 18. Clause 55, page 68, line 37—Delete 'However, if' and substitute 'If'

No. 19. Clause 55, page 68, after line 40—Insert:

(6a) Furthermore, if in relation to a worker who was working part-time at the relevant date there is evidence that, at the relevant date, the worker had a legally enforceable right to return to full-time work, the hours worked factor applying in relation to the worker will be based on full-time work.

No. 20. Clause 98, page 97, after line 28—Insert:

(2) Despite section 27 of the South Australian Employment Tribunal Act 2014, the Tribunal will conduct a review of a reviewable decision as a hearing de novo.

No. 21. Clause 104, page 100, line 15—Delete 'section 43(10)' and substitute 'section 43(14)'

No. 22. Clause 105, page 100, line 22—Delete 'section 49(1)(a) and (b)' and substitute:

section 51(1)(a) and (b)

No. 23. Clause 105, page 100, line 26—Delete 'Section 49(1)(c)' and substitute:

Section 51(1)(c)

No. 24. Clause 106, page 101, line 2—Delete 'section 104(2)(b)' and substitute:

section 43(13) of the South Australian Employment Tribunal Act 2014

No. 25. Clause 106, page 101, line 28—Delete 'Section 55' and substitute 'Section 57'

No. 26. Clause 137, page 118, after line 15—Insert:

(3) The Minister must cause a copy of a report under subsection (2) to be laid before both Houses of Parliament within 6 sitting days after receiving the report.

No. 27. Clause 179, page 143, line 20—After 'employer' (first occurring) insert:

(or a representative of such an employer)

No. 28. Clause 179, page 143, line 20—After 'employer' (second occurring) insert:

(or the representative)

No. 29. Clause 180, page 144, after line 40—Insert:

(11a) Section 17(1) of the Ombudsman Act 1972 does not apply in relation to a review under subsection (8).

No. 30. Clause 203, page 156, after line 21—Insert:

(ab) without limiting paragraph (a), whether the jurisdiction of the South Australian Employment Tribunal under this Act should be transferred to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal; and

No. 31. Schedule 3, clause 1, page 160, after line 9—Insert:

(1a) If—

(a) a worker suffers an injury of a kind referred to in the first column of the table in this Schedule; and

(b) the worker was a member of SACFS presumptively employed by the Crown as a firefighter—

(i) on or after 1 July 2013; and

(ii) before the injury occurred; and

(iii) for the qualifying period referred to in the second column of the table opposite the injury; and

(c) the injury occurred—

(i) on or after 1 July 2013; and

(ii) in the case of a worker who is no longer a member of SACFS presumptively employed by the Crown as a firefighter—no more than 10 years after the cessation of that presumptive employment; and

(d) during the qualifying period referred to in paragraph (b)(iii), the worker was exposed to the hazards of a fire scene (including exposure to a hazard of the fire that occurred away from the scene),

the worker's injury is presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have arisen from his or her presumptive employment by the Crown.

No. 32. Schedule 3, clause 1, page 160, line 10—Delete 'subclause (1)' and substitute:

subclauses (1) and (1a)

No. 33. Schedule 3, clause 1, page 160, lines 18 to 42 and page 161, lines 1 and 2—

Delete subclauses (3) and (4)

No. 34. Schedule 5, clause 5, page 164, after line 15—Insert:

and

(c) without limiting subclause (3), sections 17(1) and 25 of the Ombudsman Act 1972 do not apply in relation to a matter referred to the Ombudsman.

No. 35. Schedule 9, new Part, page 173, after line 8—Insert:

Part 7A—Amendment of Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986

22A—Amendment of section 31—Evidentiary provision

(1) Section 31(2b)(b), (c) and (d)—delete paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) and substitute:

(b) the worker was a member of the South Australian Country Fire Service (SACFS) presumptively employed by the Crown as a firefighter—

(i) on or after 1 July 2013; and

(ii) before the injury occurred; and

(iii) for the qualifying period referred to in the second column of Schedule 2A opposite the injury; and

(c) the injury occurred—

(i) on or after 1 July 2013; and

(ii) in the case of a worker who is no longer a member of SACFS presumptively employed by the Crown as a firefighter—no more than 10 years after the cessation of that presumptive employment; and

(d) during the qualifying period referred to in paragraph (b)(iii), the worker was exposed to the hazards of a fire scene (including exposure to a hazard of the fire that occurred away from the scene),

(2) Section 31(4a)—delete 'subsection (2a)' and substitute: 'subsections (2a) and (2b)'

(3) Section 31(4b)—delete subsection (4b)

No. 36. Schedule 9, clause 27, page 175, line 4—Delete subclause (4)

No. 37. Schedule 9, new Division, page 188, after line 23—Insert:

Division 11A—Review of provisions relating to firefighters

66A—Review

(1) In addition to causing a review of this Act to be conducted as required under section 203, the Minister must, as soon as possible after 1 July 2018, appoint a person to carry out a review concerning the operation and impact of—

(a) the amendments to the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 made by the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Firefighters) Amendment Act 2013 and Part 7A of this Schedule; and

(b) Schedule 3 of this Act.

(2) The person appointed by the Minister under subclause (1) must present to the Minister a report on the outcome of the review no later than 4 months following his or her appointment.

(3) The Minister must, within 6 sitting days after receiving the report, have copies of the report laid before both Houses of Parliament.

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments be agreed to.

I want to say a very few words about this matter because I indicate that it is my intention to accept all of the amendments that have returned from the Legislative Council. In so doing, I hope in a few minutes' time these pieces of legislation will pass from a bill to the law of the state. In doing that, I want to make some brief remarks. I am not going to canvass the merits or otherwise of the legislation because there has been more than enough time and words expended on that topic over a very long time.

I just wanted to say, for me, this is an exercise that began almost two years ago in January of last year when the Premier asked me to start looking at this question of the WorkCover scheme. Since that time, I have been struck by how much actual goodwill there is out there if you are prepared to sit down and talk to people and listen to what they have to say, do your genuine best to try to understand their point of view and try to accommodate them where you can. Of course, in an area as complex as this area, it is not possible to make everybody 100 per cent happy, but it is possible if you work hard enough to make most people feel that they have been listened to and treated with some degree of respect.

Therefore, what I would like to do is actually make some expressions of thanks to people because I believe that this legislation will, in the fullness of time, be seen to have been one of the great reforming pieces of legislation that this parliament has produced and it has produced it in a circumstance where I have to say—and I say this on the public record—the Leader of the Opposition has been very positive and very engaged in this process. He and I have had numerous talks about this matter over great lengths of time; in fact, if I recall, most of ANZAC Day was devoted to talking about this. We have had very positive engagement with the Leader of the Opposition and the Hon. Rob Lucas in particular on this. There have been, obviously, as you would expect, little bits and pieces where the Leader of the Opposition and the government have not seen absolutely eye to eye, but in the scheme of things they have been relatively minor matters and they have been resolved.

The first thanks that I wish to place on the record is to the Leader of the Opposition, to all of your members and the Hon. Rob Lucas, for the very constructive way in which you have engaged on this very important project. If the success of this project turns out to be what I really believe it will be, that success, by reason of your behaviour, is as much your success and the whole parliament's success as it is the government's success. I really do sincerely appreciate that support. I also have to say that, unusually for me—and I know this is going to be shocking for some people—I do wish to thank some of the crossbenchers in the other place, because they have assisted in bringing us to where we are now. I say to those members in the other place—they know who they are—I do really appreciate the fact that they have engaged constructively in relation to this matter.

The thanks I have just given relate to the very end of the process, not the whole long way it took to get there. I now want to express some thanks to some of the people who, for the last 18 months or so, have been working hard on this. I would like to acknowledge—and this is in no particular order—Joe Szakacs, the secretary, and Jamie Newlyn, president of SA Unions; the PSA; the AEU; the ANMF; United Voice; the CFMEU; the CPU; the SDA; the AWU; the AMWU; the NUW; and in particular some individuals there: David Gray, Donald Blairs and Peter Lamps.

From the employers side, can I say equally there is a long list of people who have been really helpful. I want to acknowledge Business SA; AiG; the MTA; the MBA; the NECA; the PIA; the Nursery & Gardening Association; the AHA; and the Aged Care Association; along with many other employer associations and, in particular, but not really to single them out, Rick Carney, Robin Shaw and Steve Myatt, all of whom have been very helpful.

Of course, one part of this scheme is lawyers and, yes, we have engaged with lawyers for a long time. I have to acknowledge and thank the Law Society, The Australian Lawyers Alliance, but in particular Steve Dolphin, Mark Calligeros and Patrick Boylen, all of whom have made a fantastic contribution in assisting us in refining this.

I want to thank some people at WorkCover, soon to be Return to Work SA, who have done an extraordinary amount of work in supporting this project and without whose help this would have been completely impossible. Of course, Greg McCarthy, the chief executive, has been outstanding. I should perhaps not tell parliament this, but I will. I did say, I think at the closing of the second reading in this place, that if this bill passes, 'Greg it's over to you, sunshine.' Apparently, he is now known over there as 'Ray' as in little ray of sunshine, and nobody calls him Greg anymore, and I am thinking of getting him some Ray Bans, because he is going to have a busy time over the next few months getting ready for this. I thank Michael Francis, Rob Cordiner, Julia Oakley, Emma Siami, Trudy Minett, Rachel Fitton and John O'Loughlin. Special attention to Trudy, Emma, Rachel and John for their immense assistance to me and also to minister Hunter in the other place, without whom this task would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Richard Dennis, that doyen of parliamentary drafting, Richard Ewatt and Jo Ryan have all been fantastic. They have done a great job in supporting us. The number of times we sat around the table and threw ideas around and literally developed things only to change our minds and have to do it again, Richard's patience is incredible.

There are many others, but the last group of people I want particularly to thank are my personal staff who have worked extraordinary hours to keep this happening. Obviously, my chief of staff Kim Eldridge; Stephen Pinches; Libby Eatts—Libby, as you probably know, is the one who drives us all to keep passing legislation; Erin Sneath; Clare Scriven, for her work in the workers compensation improvement project; and, last but certainly not least, Jim Watson, who has done the most extraordinary amount of work.

In fact, I told him today that we will have to change his name from Jim to Boutros Boutros because of his diplomatic skills in being able to explain this to everybody. He has a career in the United Nations if he gets sick of doing this sort of work. To all of those people, thank you very much. I commend the amended bill to the house.

Motion carried.