Accident compensation legislation to be updated

Victoria’s Accident Compensation Act will be updated to enhance support for injured workers. The Minister for Finance, WorkCover and the Transport Accident Commission, Tim Holding said: “The Accident Compensation Act 1985 has been in operation for over 20 years and is the basis of a workers compensation scheme that has provided support to hundreds of thousands of injured workers. While the underlying principles of the Act remain sound, incremental changes over the years have made it unwieldy and unnecessarily complex.”

Holding said the legislation was being independently reviewed to ensure appropriate support continued to be provided to injured workers: “This review builds on the success of the recent reforms to the Occupation Health and Safety Act and is part of the government’s election commitment to modernising this important area of law.

“We want to reduce the administrative burden on employers, improve the support and services provided to injured workers and improve the overall efficiency of the accident compensation system.”

The review will examine the operation of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 and associated legislation, focusing on:

The independent review will be chaired by Peter Hanks QC, a constitutional and administrative lawyer and author of several publications on constitutional and administrative law. Hanks will report to the Minister in the second half of 2008.