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FACT SHEET
Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Presumption of Cause of
Disease) Bill 2017
The Government has introduced legislation into Parliament to remove the existing
requirements on volunteer fire-fighters to access compensation based on the presumption that
some cancers may be linked to occupational exposure.
In 2013 amendments to the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (the Act)
established a rebuttable presumption that particular forms of cancer developed by fire-fighters,
are taken to be work related for the purpose of claiming workers compensation under the Act.
Whilst the amendments provided for volunteers, to qualify they needed to meet an additional
requirement of attending 150 exposure events as a fire-fighter over a period of five or ten
years, depending on the type of cancer.
This legislation removes the requirement for volunteer fire-fighters to attend a specified
number of exposure events.
In addition, the amendments require the Minister for Building and Construction to commission
a review by 30 June 2018 as to whether a presumption that post-traumatic stress disorder is
occupationally linked for relevant workers should be included into the Act. The provision
requires the report to be tabled in both Houses of Parliament by 1 October 2018.
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