Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Parliamentary Entitlements Amendment (Injury Compensation Scheme) Bill 2016 because it implements longstanding commitments made to parliamentarians from both sides of politics over the course of the last 15 to 20 years. Parliamentarians are not employed by the Commonwealth and, therefore, the Commonwealth is currently unable to provide workers compensation insurance to parliamentarians without an express legislative authority. The importance of this cannot be understated.

I rise to speak on this bill as a parliamentarian who enjoyed travel around the north of Western Australia courtesy of the Royal Flying Doctor Service after a cardiac event. The cardiac event was brilliantly managed by the hospitals at Fitzroy Crossing and Broome and then at Royal Perth Hospital. But the cost of being flown around by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to attend those very urgent appointments had to be borne by me personally, even though the cardiac event had occurred while I was attending a function representing the Prime Minister at a very significant community cultural event—in fact, a funeral in the Kimberley district.

That event taught me the importance of needing to have appropriate schemes—what I would call a workers compensation scheme and an occupational health and safety scheme—for parliamentarians. I then spoke to parliamentary colleagues who had broken an ankle, a leg or an arm while doing the work of the parliament, and they simply were not covered. Of course, as I look across at the other side of the chamber, I now see the rose in place of the former member for Canning who died while in office and who would not have been subject to any parliamentary injury or compensation scheme.

One of the very good measures in this bill is a measure that provides, in addition to the standard Comcover insurance which a public servant would have, a benefit for funeral expenses. That is critically important because when a parliamentarian dies, although not all parliamentarians should be afforded a state funeral, their funerals are very, very big affairs. They are signature events in their regions and the cost borne by the family is immense. I am really pleased that this bill attends to that matter.

Prior to the introduction of the Parliamentary Entitlements Act in 1990, senators and members were covered for personal injury and disease sustained in the course of their duties of office by the scheme for payment of special compensation for injuries in exceptional circumstances. Between 1990 and 2002, four compensation payments for injuries to senators and members were made by way of act of grace payments. No payments in relation to workers compensation type claims have been made to federal parliamentarians since 2002, following legal advice that any such payments needed explicit authorisation under the Parliamentary Entitlements Act or regulations. A number of reviews of parliamentary entitlements, including the 2010 Belcher review, have acknowledged this oversight.

This legislation we are dealing with today implements a 2012 Labor government commitment to implement three forms of insurance. The first is public liability insurance to cover those members of the public who attend forums that we might hold in our electorate, forums that may provide electors with information and an opportunity to meet us. This might be at a local show or at some local community event, and an injury may occur at that event. But we put in place public liability insurance to cover that. We also put in place what we called management liability or legal liability insurance to cover some of the legal exposures that parliamentarians had created for them by an unfortunate and imprudent decision of the former Labor government in 2011.

This workers compensation scheme completes the third of those commitments and it does it in a particularly good way. The Parliamentary Entitlements Amendment (Injury Compensation Scheme) Bill 2016 amends the Parliamentary Entitlements Act 1990 to give the minister the power to establish this parliamentary injury compensation scheme. The scheme would apply retrospectively from 1 January 2016 and would provide compensation benefits to parliamentarians in relation to:

… an injury or disease, or an aggravation of an injury or disease, suffered by a member, arising out of, or contributed to by, the member's activities as a member, Parliamentary office-holder or a Minister …

We have seen parliamentarians leave with a range of medical conditions either aggravated or created by their service in parliament. I do not say that as a whinge or as a complaint, but it was with great pain, as Special Minister of State, that I watched that happen on at least one occasion and, with no legislative authority, could not help that senator, who desperately and properly needed support and would ordinarily, in any other work environment, have been compensated by her employer, the parliament. For an injury or disease, or an aggravation of an injury or disease, suffered by the spouse of the Prime Minister and arising out of the person's official activities as the spouse of the Prime Minister, this is self-evidently a good and proper thing to do, and I am so pleased that the parliament is acting on this now.

The loss or damage to medical equipment used by a member or the spouse of the Prime Minister arising in the course of their respective activities is also covered, and services, facilities and equipment intended to eliminate or minimise the risk to the health or safety of members or the spouse of the Prime Minister arising in the course of their respective activities are all covered. The bill will also allow the parliamentary injury compensation scheme to provide for preventative work and health and safety services, facilities and equipment. The spouse of the Prime Minister is also covered under this scheme, as I said, when performing official duties in connection with the role of the Prime Minister. This proposed act provides compensation benefits, including for medical treatment, incapacity to work, permanent impairment, household and attendant care services, rehabilitation programs, alteration of place of residence and place of work, modifications to a vehicle or article, aids or appliances, death benefits and funeral expenses.

We do have some concern about a lack of definition around what constitutes a member's activities. One of the reasons I have concerns around that is that, in my view, members' activities start from the moment a member is elected to parliament. They finish the moment the member is no longer elected. I do not know a member of this place who ever clocks out or checks out from their work. Even on a holiday with family and friends, they are still on duty, either responding to phone calls, talking about their work or absorbing information that is valuable to their work. So, in my view, this job is a 24/7 job—proudly so. I do not complain about that, and none of us in this place complain about it. But it is 24/7 work, and it does continue for the entirety of the term. I think we need to acknowledge that.

Members and senators should also be aware that all claims are subject to investigation by Comcare and would therefore be subject to FOI requests. I do not necessarily think that is the most prudent way of dealing with accident compensation insurance for parliamentarians, and there is no provision to allow members to be able to cash out their entitlement with Comcare. Most members will currently cover their insurance through their superannuation scheme. Consequently, because of that payment through their superannuation scheme, their superannuation scheme returns are measurably lower. If we had a capacity to cash this benefit out, it would be identical to the cost faced by the taxpayer and would provide the ability for the member to tailor a level of insurance for their own specific circumstances. I hope that will come, but I am really pleased that we have this measure. It implements a requirement that is long overdue, and it will provide members of parliament in the future with a better level of care, a better level of insurance and a better level of assurance that, should something happen, there is a better safety net to catch them. I commend this bill to the House.

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