WorkCoverSA Regulation Review

All South Australian regulations are subject to the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978 which includes provisions for regulations to expire after 10 years.

Many of the regulations administered by WorkCoverSA were due to expire in 2010 so a comprehensive review of the regulations underpinning the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 (the Act) commenced in late 2008.

After extensive analysis and stakeholder consultation, the WorkCover Board Regulations Review Committee endorsed a new set of regulations in April 2010.

In June 2010 Cabinet approved the new Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010. The new regulations were made by the Governor in Executive Council and published in the South Australian Government Gazette number 40 on Thursday 24 June 2010.

WorkCover has produced A guide to the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010 to provide more detail on each individual amendment and to demonstrate how the names and numbers of the regulations will change.

Commencement

A member of the Legislative Council moved a disallowance motion against the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010 on Wednesday 27 October 2010 but as the motion was not voted before the set commencement date, the regulations still commenced on Monday 1 November 2010.

The only exception was Regulation 49 'Disclosure of information' which, due to legislative provisions under section 112 of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 could not commence until after the disallowance motion was resolved.

As it was understood that the concern was with Regulation 16 'Discontinuance Fee', Cabinet made the decision to remove this regulation from the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010. Regulation 16 was removed from the regulations on Thursday 4 November 2010.

As such, the disallowance motion was discharged on Wednesday 10 November 2010. This means that the motion to disallow the new regulations was withdrawn and Regulation 49 'Disclosure of information' commenced on Thursday 11 November 2010.

The Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010 have now fully commenced. Current versions of all of WorkCover's Acts and regulations can be accessed from the Legislation and regulations page.

Deeming provisions

The deeming provisions are currently a part of Regulations 5 and 6 of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2010 and for the purposes of the definition of ‘contract of service' in section 3(1) of the Act, prescribe classes of work as work covered under the Act. They also exclude some workers from coverage under the Act. Effectively, the deeming provisions 'deem' certain workers to be covered by WorkCover where they may not have been otherwise or vice versa.

In 2009 WorkCover commenced a targeted review of the deeming provisions, separately to the Regulation Review. Stakeholders provided feedback on the deeming provisions as a part of the main Regulation Review and during a targeted consultation process in October and November 2009. At the WorkCover Board Regulations Review Committee meeting in April 2010 the Committee decided that the deeming provisions review should be put on hold until after the main Regulation Review was completed.

For enquiries, please email regulationreview@workcover.com or contact WorkCoverSA's service centre on 13 18 55.