A comprehensive review of the regulations underpinning the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 is currently underway.
All South Australian regulations are subject to the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978 which includes provisions for the expiry of regulations after 10 years; many of the regulations administered by WorkCover expire in the next 12 to 24 months.
The review commenced in August 2008, and a public discussion paper was launched on 1 October 2008 to open the first round of external stakeholder consultation. Stakeholders had until 13 February 2009 to make submissions to the Review.
WorkCover is currently analysing proposals drawn from the consultation process, and developing proposals for replacement regulations to be considered by the WorkCover Board. WorkCover has also identified the deeming provisions within the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Claims and Registration) Regulations 1999 as requiring more thorough stakeholder consultation.
WorkCover now anticipates completing this further consultation in June 2009, and requesting Cabinet approval to draft regulations in November 2009. After this, WorkCover will facilitate a further 8 weeks of stakeholder consultation on the draft regulations which is likely to commence in January 2010, with the aim to commence the new set of regulations on 1 July 2010.
Updates and further information will be provided as the Review progresses.
For general enquiries, please contact WorkCoverSA’s service centre on 13 18 55 or email: regulationreview@workcover.com.
You can access the Regulations from WorkCover's Legislation page.