2010‑2011
The Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Presented and read a first time
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Bill 2011
No. , 2011
(Mr Bandt, Mr Broadbent, Ms Vamvakinou)
A Bill for an Act to amend provisions in the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 relating to injuries sustained by firefighters, and for related purposes
Contents
1............ Short title............................................................................................. 1
2............ Commencement................................................................................... 1
3............ Schedule(s)......................................................................................... 2
Schedule 1—Amendments 3
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 3
A Bill for an Act to amend provisions in the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 relating to injuries sustained by firefighters, and for related purposes
The Parliament of Australia enacts:
1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Act 2011.
2 Commencement
This Act commences on the day after it receives the Royal Assent.
3 Schedule(s)
Each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.
Schedule 1—Amendments
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
1 After subsection 7 (7)
Insert:
(8) If an employee:
(a) suffers a disease mentioned in the following table; and
(b) before the disease was first diagnosed, was employed as a firefighter for the qualifying period mentioned for that disease; and
(c) was exposed to the hazards of a fire scene during that period;
the employment is taken to have been the dominant cause of the contraction of the disease, unless the contrary is established.
| Item | Disease | Qualifying period |
| 1 | Primary site brain cancer | 5 years |
| 2 | Primary site bladder cancer | 15 years |
| 3 | Primary site kidney cancer | 15 years |
| 4 | Primary non-Hodgkins lymphoma | 15 years |
| 5 | Primary leukemia | 5 years |
| 6 | Primary site breast cancer | 10 years |
| 7 | Primary site testicular cancer | 10 years |
| 8 | A cancer of a kind prescribed for this table | The period prescribed for such a cancer |
(9) For the purposes of subsection (8):
(a) an employee is taken to have been employed as a firefighter if firefighting duties made up a substantial portion of his or her duties; and
(b) an employee who was employed as a firefighter for several periods that add up to the qualifying period is taken to have been so employed for the qualifying period.