Employers' Liability and Workers' Compensation: Australia

Abstract

Australia has a long history of workers' compensation legislation. Between 1900 and 1926, all states and territories except the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) had introduced workers' compensation legislation. The reasons for doing so mirrored those that had convinced the Westminster Parliament in London to introduce such legislation in 1897: concerns that the common law of negligence, with its defences of common employment, contributory negligence and assumption of risk did not operate fairly in relation to those workers injured as an inevitable consequence of industrialisation. Moreover, the rise of organised labour as a political force also contributed to the climate that allowed workers' compensation legislation to pass: "As was the case with preventative legislation [occupational health and safety legislation], the introduction of these laws was often bitterly contested by groups of employers, private insurers and others. It often took several attempts, the increased franchise or mobilisation of working class voters and over a decade (if not considerably longer) before workable and comprehensive schemes were achieved".