ek A tts y Queensland Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 Queensland Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 Contents Page Shorttitle 0... eee eee 4 Actamended .......... 0.0.0. eee 4 Insertion of NeW S 382A... 2. eee 4 32A Special provision about diseases contracted by firefighters 4 4 Insertion of new Ch 32 .. 1... eee 7 Chapter 32 Transitional and declaratory provision for Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Act 2015 707 Application of S32A ........ 0.06. e eee eee 7 A Bill for An Act to amend the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 for particular purposes Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 [s 4] The Parliament of Queensland enacts— Clause 1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Act 2015. Clause 2 Act amended This Act amends the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. Clause 3 Insertion of new s 32A Chapter 1, part 4, division 6, subdivision 2— insert— 32A Special provision about diseases contracted by firefighters (1) _ This section applies if— (a) a person contracts a disease mentioned in column 1 of the following table— (i) while employed as a firefighter; or (ii) at any time after the person stops being employed as a firefighter; and (b) at any time before contracting the disease, the person was employed as a firefighter for at least the number of years mentioned in column 2 of the table, whether in 1 period or 2 or more periods. Column 1 Column 2 Disease Minimum number of years as firefighter primary site brain cancer 5 years primary site bladder cancer 15 years Page 4 ww NO 12 15 18 2022 Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 [s 3 Column 1 Column 2 Disease Minimum number of years as firefighter primary site kidney cancer 15 years primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma 15 years primary leukemia 5 years primary site breast cancer 10 years primary site testicular cancer 10 years multiple myeloma 15 years primary site prostate cancer 15 years primary site ureter cancer 15 years primary site colorectal cancer 15 years primary site oesophageal cancer 25 years (2) _ For section 32(3)(a)— (a) the disease is taken to have been contracted in the course of the person's employment as a firefighter; and (b) the employment is taken to be a significant contributing factor to the disease. (3) If the person satisfies subsection (1)(b) by combining periods of employment as different kinds of firefighter, the disease is taken to have been contracted in the course of the following employment— (a) if at least 1 of the periods was employment as a fire officer—employment as a fire officer; (b) otherwise—employment as a volunteer. (4) Toremove any doubt, it is declared that a disease taken to have been contracted in the course of a person's employment as a rural firefighter or volunteer is taken to be an injury sustained while— Page 5 OAN DN PWN ee re oO enilandilend WN ee Nn NOR Ree COAND Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 [s 3] Page 6 (5) (6) (7) (a) (b) Note— for a rural firefighter—performing duties as a member of a rural fire brigade; or for a volunteer—attending at a fire as a volunteer firefighter or volunteer fire warden. See section 14(3) for rural firefighters and section 15(3) for volunteers. For this section, a person contracts a disease when the first of the following happens— (a) (b) (c) the person is first diagnosed as having the disease; the person becomes totally or partially incapacitated because of the disease; the person dies because of the disease. This section does not apply if it is proved that— (a) (b) the disease was contracted by the person other than in the course of the person's employment as a firefighter; or the person's employment as a firefighter is not a significant contributing factor to the disease. In this section— employment includes engagement. (a) (b) (c) firefighter means— a fire officer; or a rural firefighter; or a volunteer. fire officer means a person employed under the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 as a fire officer or auxiliary firefighter. CNY DA WRW NH eo o ao Ne pe BW re eR nw RRR oan NNW NRO ee ee ee ee onan Ff WwW Wwhn No) Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Bill 2015 Clause 4 [s 4] rural firefighter means a member of a rural fire brigade registered under the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990. volunteer means— (a) a volunteer firefighter; or (b) a volunteer fire warden. Insertion of new ch 32 After chapter 31— insert— Chapter 32 Transitional and declaratory provision for Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Act 707 Application of s 32A d) (2) Section 32A applies to a disease contracted by a person, as mentioned in section 32A(5), on or after the day the Bill for the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation (Protecting Firefighters) Amendment Act 2015 was introduced into the Legislative Assembly. Section 382(3) does not apply to an amount payable by WorkCover because of the operation of section 32A. 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