Bill
Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
passed, as at 2015-05-26. Employment portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Employment
Recorded stages
Divisions
- Luke Hartsuyker As I was saying before the adjournment, before the Aucote decision the Seacare scheme was understood to apply to around 330 ships. Following the decision, the Seacare scheme could cover as many as 11,000 ships or perhaps more. Whereas the Commonwealth was responsible for regulating workers compensation and work health and safety for a small proportion of the maritime industry before the decision, it now has responsibility for the vast majority of the industry. This represents a massive cost shift from the states to the Commonwealth. The bill therefore seeks to restore the balance of Commonwealth and state coverage of workers compensation and work health and safety for seafarers that has existed since 1911. To effectively achieve this, the bill applies retrospectively to any injury, loss or damage suffered by any employee on or after the commencement of the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act in 1993. Past claims will not be disturbed. This approach ensures that there is certainty as to what a seafarer's appropriate workers compensation rights are and have been. The bill does not seek to change what has been believed to be the workers compensation entitlements and work health and safety protections of seafarers. Let me make it clear: it is not about interfering with the ability of seafarers to make a workers compensation claim or to receive workers compensation entitlements. This bill is about providing certainty and ensuring seafarers have proper protections in the short term to deal with the Federal Court decision. More broadly, governments over an extended period have not brought forward reform in this space. The government is giving urgent but careful consideration to the recommendations of the Stewart-Crompton review of the Seacare scheme, including those to clarify the coverage of the scheme or delink the scheme from the Navigation Act. The government will consult with all industry participants on the nature of the reforms ahead of the — 2015-03-24, House of Representatives: affirmative, ayes 82, noes 51
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Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2015-02-26.
The bill clarifies which workers in the Australian maritime industry are covered by the Seacare workers' compensation and safety scheme.
It removes references that applied the scheme based on the type of employer and instead ties coverage to whether a ship is directly and substantially involved in interstate or international trade.
The coverage changes start retrospectively from 24 June 1993 for the compensation act and from 18 July 1994 for the occupational health and safety act.
- Repeals provisions that applied the Seacare scheme to employees of trading, financial or foreign corporations.
- Limits scheme coverage to employees on ships with a direct and substantial connection to interstate or international trade.
- Exempts employers from paying a levy for employees whose work is instead covered by a state or territory scheme.
Seafarers, their employers, and the Seacare Authority and Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Sources
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