Bill
Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023
lapsed, as at 2023-11-13.
- Sponsor
- Lambie
- Portfolio
- Not recorded
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2023-11-06
- second reading — 2023-11-06
- second reading — 2023-11-09
- second reading — 2023-11-09
- third reading — 2023-11-09
- introduced — 2023-11-13
Divisions
- Fair Work Legislation Amendment (First Responders) Bill 2023 - First Reading - Suspend the usual procedural rules — 2023-11-13, House of Representatives: negative, ayes 62, noes 75
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2023-11-06.
This bill changes the law so that certain emergency workers who develop post-traumatic stress disorder are automatically considered to have gotten it from their jobs, unless proven otherwise.
The change applies to people employed in roles such as police, firefighting, ambulance work, and emergency call-taking, and it covers both current and past workers who showed symptoms after the law takes effect.
The bill starts the day after it receives Royal Assent, and it only applies to PTSD that occurs after that date.
- It adds a new rule to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 that creates a rebuttable presumption in favor of first responders with PTSD.
- It lets the Minister create a legal instrument that spells out the exact situations where PTSD is considered to have happened because of work.
- It specifies that the presumption does not override older rules about other diseases and that workers can still prove their case even if they don't fit the new definition.
Australian Federal Police employees, firefighters, ambulance officers and paramedics, and emergency services communications operators in the ACT.
Sources
em
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