Administrative and funding arrangements
This section provides background information on the administrative and funding arrangements under which the workers’ compensation schemes operate. The key areas for comparison include scheme names, legislation, transitional arrangements and provisions for certain people who are injured in unique ways or at particular places or times.
The tables contained in this chapter include:
8.1 Applicable workers’ compensation legislation
8.2 Transitional provisions
8.3 Minor schemes
8.3a New South Wales
8.3b Victoria
8.3c Western Australia
8.3d South Australia
8.3e Tasmania
8.3f Commonwealth
8.3g New Zealand
8.4 Scheme funding positions
8.5 Standard average premium rates
8.6 Selected industry premium rates
Scheme administrative arrangements
Employers who operate in more than one Australian state or territory must comply with all relevant laws within each of the jurisdictions in which they work. During the 2020-21 financial year workers’ compensation schemes operated under separate laws in each jurisdiction, as shown in Table 8.1.
Transitional provisions
Not all injured workers are covered under current workers’ compensation legislation because their date of injury may have preceded the introduction of that legislation. However, most jurisdictions provide for workers’ compensation payments to be made to people who would have had an entitlement to compensation under preceding legislation, or for some transitional arrangements to apply to those people. For example, in Queensland injuries that occurred before 1 January 1991 are covered by the Workers’ Compensation Act 1916, injuries that occurred between 1 January 1991 and 1 February 1997 are covered by the Workers’ Compensation Act 1990 and injuries that occurred on or after 1 February 1997 and before 1 July 2003 are covered by the WorkCover Queensland Act 1996.
In other circumstances an injured worker may need to meet certain criteria in order for an injury that occurred when previous legislation was in force to be covered under the current legislation. For example, a Commonwealth employee who was injured prior to 1988 would only be entitled to compensation under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 if there was an entitlement under the preceding pieces of legislation (see Table 8.2).
Unique provisions and other workers’ compensation schemes
A number of jurisdictions have specific workers’ compensation or related legislation or other arrangements to provide for people who are injured in unique ways or at particular places or times. For example, the Commonwealth has an administrative scheme for people who may have been affected by nuclear radiation from British atomic tests in Australia in the 1950s. Table 8.3 lists the minor schemes extant in each jurisdiction. Tables 8.3a to 8.3g expand on the specific arrangements in each jurisdiction for the minor schemes.