[Index] [Search] [Download] [Help]
This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
South Australia
Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Protection for
Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2012
A BILL FOR
An Act to amend the Workers
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986.
Contents
Part 1—Preliminary
1Short
title
2Commencement
3Amendment
provisions
Part 2—Amendment of Workers
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986
4Amendment of section
31—Evidentiary provision
5Insertion of Schedule 2A
Schedule 2A—Injuries presumed to arise
from employment as a firefighter
Schedule 1—Review of
amendments
1Review
The Parliament of South Australia enacts as
follows:
This Act may be cited as the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation
(Protection for Firefighters) Amendment Act 2012.
This Act will come into operation on the day on which it is assented to by
the Governor.
In this Act, a provision under a heading referring to the amendment of a
specified Act amends the Act so specified.
Part 2—Amendment
of Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation
Act 1986
4—Amendment
of section 31—Evidentiary provision
(1) Section 31(1)—delete "An injury" and substitute:
Subject to subsections (2) and (2a), an injury
(2) Section 31(2)—delete "However, if" and
substitute:
If
(3) Section 31—after subsection (2) insert:
(a) a worker suffers an injury of a kind referred to in the first column
of Schedule 2A; and
(b) the injury occurred on or after 12 November 2012; and
(c) before the injury occurred, the worker was employed as a firefighter
for the qualifying period referred to in the second column of Schedule 2A
opposite the injury; and
(d) during that period, 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 that employment.
(4) Section 31(3)—delete subsection (3) and
substitute:
(3) A regulation made on the recommendation, or with the approval, of the
Corporation or the Advisory Committee may—
(a) extend the operation of subsection (2) to injuries and types of
work prescribed in the regulation;
(b) extend the operation of subsection (2a) to an injury and
corresponding qualifying period prescribed in the regulation.
(5) Section 31—after subsection (4) insert:
(4a) For the purposes of subsection (2a)—
(a) a worker is taken to have been employed as a firefighter if
fire-fighting duties made up a substantial portion of his or her duties;
and
(b) a worker who was employed as a firefighter for 2 or more periods
that add up to or exceed the qualifying period, is taken to have been so
employed for the qualifying period.
After Schedule 2 insert:
Schedule 2A—Injuries presumed to arise from
employment as a firefighter
Description of injury |
Qualifying period |
---|---|
Primary site brain cancer |
5 years |
Primary site bladder cancer |
15 years |
Primary site kidney cancer |
15 years |
Primary non-Hodgkins lymphoma |
15 years |
Primary leukemia |
5 years |
Primary site breast cancer |
10 years |
Primary site testicular cancer |
10 years |
Multiple myeloma |
15 years |
Primary site prostate cancer |
15 years |
Primary site ureter cancer |
15 years |
Primary site colorectal cancer |
15 years |
Primary site oesophageal cancer |
25 years |
Schedule 1—Review
of amendments
(1) The Minister must,
as soon as possible following the fourth anniversary of the commencement of this
clause, appoint an independent person to carry out a review concerning the
operation and impact of the amendments made by 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.
(4) In this clause—
Minister means the Minister to whom the administration of the
Workers
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 is committed.