Western Australia introduced the Workers’ Compensation Act 1902. There were frequent and complex amendments over the next 79 years until the Workers’ Compensation and Assistance Act 1981 amended and consolidated the law. In 1991 the Act was renamed the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 1981, reflecting a general shift of emphasis to rehabilitation.

A number of reviews and reports between 1999–2001 recommended changes and the Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill 2004 introduced changes to statutory benefits, injury management, access to common law, employer incentives in relation to return to work for disabled workers, and fairness in dispute resolution. As part of the reforms the Act was renamed the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 which reflects an emphasis on injury management within the workers’ compensation scheme in Western Australia.

Legislative Review

In 2009 a further review of the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 was undertaken. Consequently, the first stage of legislative change saw the:

• removal of all aged based limits on workers’ compensation entitlements
• extension of the safety net arrangement for workers awarded common law damages against uninsured employers, and
• inclusion of various amendments of an administrative nature (including the removal of time limit for writ lodgement after election and the incorporation of diffuse pleural fibrosis into the industrial disease provisions of the legislation).

The establishment of the Conciliation and Arbitration Service and other changes to the dispute resolution process commenced on 1 December 2011.

The second stage of the legislative review progressed in 2013/2014 and saw the release of the Review of Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 Discussion Paper. Stakeholder feedback on the discussion paper informed the subsequent Review of Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 Final Report (Final Report).

The final report was tabled in Parliament on 26 June 2014. The report contains 171 recommendations for inclusion in the new statute. Drafting of a bill commenced in 2015/16 but was placed on hold until the conclusion of the 2017 WA State election.

On 11 August 2021 WorkCover WA commenced consultation on the draft Workers Compensation and Injury Management Bill 2021.

The draft Bill modernises WA’s workers compensation laws and is based on recommendations from WorkCover WA’s 2014 Review of the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981: Final Report.

The draft Bill was prepared for public comment before its introduction into State Parliament, continuing WorkCover WA’s open and consultative approach on the legislative review.

WorkCover WA invited written submissions on the draft Bill for a public consultation period which concluded in November 2021.

In addition to the submissions process, WorkCover WA undertook a number of public information seminars and held several meetings with stakeholders to discuss the draft Bill.