You are here

Ch 64 Repealed Compensation Acts

Document

In this chapter

The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act) is the most recent of a number of pieces of legislation (Acts of Parliament) providing workers' compensation benefits in specific circumstances to 'employees' of the Commonwealth of Australia. Not all of the Acts have applied to members and former members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). For example, the Commonwealth Workmen's Compensation Act 1912 did not apply at all to ADF members.

The first of the Commonwealth's workers' compensation Acts which explicitly covered ADF members was the Commonwealth Employees' Compensation Act 1930 (No.24/1930) (the 1930 Act). That Act was proclaimed on 10 November 1930 and it continued to operate until 31 August 1971. However, there was in fact no coverage under the 1930 Act for members of what we now know as the ADF until 3 January 1949. Periods of 'operational' or 'war service' for the purposes of the then Repatriation Act 1920 (now the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986) were specifically excluded from coverage under the 1930 Act.

On 1 September 1971, the Compensation (Commonwealth Government Employees) Act 1971 (No 48/1971) (the 1971 Act) was proclaimed. That Act specifically provided compensation coverage, in the MRCC sense, for all current and former members of the ADF, the Reserve Forces and also for Cadets. However, periods of 'operational' or 'war service' for the purposes of the then Repatriation Act 1920 were also specifically excluded from coverage when the Act was proclaimed, as was the case under the 1930 Act. See VEA/SRCA election above)

The 1971 Act continued to apply until 30 November 1988. The '1988 Act' or the 'SRC Act' (initially the Commonwealth Employees Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 – (No 75/1988) but later renamed the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, was proclaimed on the following day. It still applies, in the MRCC sense, to members and former members of the ADF, Reserve forces, Cadets and Cadet Officers and Instructors, holders of honorary rank in the ADF and members of philanthropic organisations which provide services to the ADF and which are declared by the Minister (currently the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) to be covered by the SRC Act.