1951 - 2001

In 1951, the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance 1951 (1951 Ordinance) was made by the Governor‑General for the Territory in accordance with powers conferred under the Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909-1938 (Cth) and the Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910-1947 (Cth). The ordinance, covering workers’ compensation for private sector employees, repealed the original 1946 Ordinance.

With the advent of self-government for the Territory on 11 May 1989, the 1951 Ordinance became the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1951 and from 22 January 1992 it became the Workers Compensation Act 1951. Amendments were made by the Workers Compensation (Amendment) Act 1991 to the Workers’ Compensation Act 1951, following reviews of the system in 1984, 1987 and 1990.

2002 - 2005

The Workers Compensation Act 1951 was significantly amended in 2002 to create a workers’ compensation scheme based upon the principles of early rehabilitation and return to safe and durable work for injured workers. The Workers Compensation Amendment Act 2001 introduced a number of new elements to ensure that employers, insurers, treatment providers, and the injured worker were equally obliged to participate in personal injury plans, claims were dealt with expediently and statutory benefits were aligned with the Scheme’s return to work goals.

In 2004, amendments to the Workers Compensation Act 1951 implemented the nationally agreed arrangements for cross-border workers compensation coverage setting out the state of connection rules for employers to determine if an employee is an ACT worker requiring ACT workers' compensation policy coverage.

2006 - 2011

A number of amendments to the Workers Compensation Act 1951 from 2006 through to 2011 were made that:

• amended the definition of a ‘worker’ to allow certain categories of carers to be deemed as ‘workers’ under the Act and clarify the general worker definition to limit the opportunity for premium avoiding and sham contracting;
• create the Default Insurance Fund to amalgamate and supersede the previous Nominal Insurer and Supplementation Fund and provide a safety net for workers’ compensation benefits to injured workers where an employer did not hold a workers’ compensation policy, or an insurer collapses or is unable to meet the costs of workers’ compensation claims against a policy;

• implemented the National Framework for the Approval of Workplace Rehabilitation Providers developed by the Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities;
• strengthened the existing compliance framework by introducing new offences for sustained non-compliance that scale the penalties to be commensurate with an employer’s operational size; and
• from 1 September 2011, the Workers Compensation Amendment Regulation 2011 amended the financial and compliance audit requirements for insurers and self-insurers.

2014

In 2014, the Workers Compensation (Cross-border Workers) Amendment Act 2014 was passed to align ACT workers’ compensation laws with nationally agreed updated cross-border procedures. Prior to passage of the amending Act, the nationally agreed procedures were set out by subordinate legislation.

In 2014, subordinate legislative instruments made in the ACT:

• introduced guidelines for insurers on the procedures to be followed when cancelling a workers’ compensation policy; and
• introduced a new reporting standard for insurer claim and policy data submissions under the ACT’s private sector workers’ compensation scheme. The new reporting standard, the National Insurer Data Specifications, was developed cooperatively by the privately underwritten workers’ compensation jurisdictions and the Insurance Council of Australia.

2016

The Workers Compensation Amendment Act 2016 was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly in February 2016 and modernised employer obligations on return to work by introducing a requirement on all self-insurers and employers with an annual premium of $200 000 or greater to appoint a suitably qualified or experienced return to work coordinator.

In May 2016, the ACT passed legislation which extended the ACT Lifetime Care and Support Scheme (LTCS) to cover catastrophic workplace injuries sustained by private sector workers in the ACT. The new Scheme commenced on 1 July 2016. The expanded LTCS gave effect to the ACT’s commitment to establish a National Injury Insurance Scheme (NIIS) that meets the agreed national minimum NIIS benchmarks. There will be an ACT LTCS Commissioner, however claims management/administration services will be carried out by the NSW LTCS Authority. Insurers and self-insurers are levied under the LTCS legislation to fund the scheme.

The Workers Compensation Amendment Act (No 2) (the Act) was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly in June 2016, with commencement on 1 July 2017. The Act introduced amendments to ensure workers who suffer from an imminently fatal asbestos-related disease receive equitable and timely access to statutory compensation.

The Road Transport (Taxi Industry Innovation) Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016 (No 1) introduced changes to the Workers Compensation Regulation 2002 from 1 November 2016 such that:

• a transport booking service would be responsible for paying for workers’ compensation for any drivers it asks to work for it exclusively;
• a contract of bailment with a driver would create a responsibility for the operator to purchase a workers’ compensation policy for the driver; and
• owner drivers who do not engage other drivers to drive their vehicle would continue to be treated as sole traders and will not require workers’ compensation insurance.

2017

In October 2017, the Workers Compensation Amendment Act 2017 (the Act) was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly. The Act introduced amendments to increase death entitlements, weekly compensation, modernise the employment-related diseases list and introduced a penalty provision aimed at employers who fail to pay an injured worker following receipt of a claim. All amendments other than weekly compensation commenced on 13 December 2017. The amendments to weekly compensation had a retrospective effect commencing 1 July 2017 to align with Australian Government aged pension reforms.

The death entitlement payments increased to approximately double the previous entitlement, bringing payments to a level consistent with the Commonwealth’s Comcare scheme, this creates equity for the families of ACT private and public sector workers.

The Australian Government is incrementally increasing the qualifying age for the age pension from 65 to 67 years between 2017 and 2023. On 1 July 2017, the qualifying age for the pension increased to 65.5 years.

Prior to the amendments, the ACT workers’ compensation laws provided that workers injured before their 63rd birthday were not entitled to weekly compensation payments once they reached age 65. Reforms to weekly benefit eligibility align the workers’ compensation laws with the Commonwealth age pension age, ensuring that injured workers can transition from weekly compensation to the age pension without any gap in income.

These amendments also adopted the updated list of Deemed Diseases published by Safe Work Australia and in doing so, expanded the number of deemed diseases from 28 to 48.

The reforms introduced a penalty provision against an employer who fails to pay a worker weekly compensation after being provided with a notice of a work-related injury. This penalty was introduced to encourage compliance with the legislation and protect worker rights.

2018

In November 2018, the Workers Compensation Act 1951 was amended by the Statute Law Amendment Act 2018 to reinstate an entitlement to compensation that was inadvertently removed. This entitlement related to the payment of weekly compensation for up to 2 years following the initial date of incapacity to workers who are pension age or older when incapacitated.

2019

On 1 March 2019, the ACT Government became a self-insurer under the Safety and Rehabilitation Compensation Act 1988 (Cth).

In September 2019, the Workers Compensation Act 1951 was amended by the Workers Compensation Amendment Act 2020 to ensure that the Default Insurance Fund can provide workers’ compensation benefits to workers in situations where both a contractor and principal contractor are uninsured. Amendments were also made to ensure that family day care educators have access to workers’ compensation.