AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION ORDINANCE (NO. 2) 1969

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

No. 13 of 1969

		Under the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance 1951‑1969, the Minister may appoint legally qualified medical practitioners to act as medical referees in circumstances where parties cannot agree on the medical condition of an injured person.  The Minister may also make Regulations relating to the fees that may be paid to such referees.

		The existing Regulations prescribe a fee of $4.20 to be paid to medical referees for a first examination and $2.10 for any subsequent examination.  Such a low scale of fees is nowadays not adequate to enable the employment as medical referees of specialists in any branch of medicine.  Moreover, the fees demanded by specialists vary with the extend of the examination required by an injured employee and the nature of the injury involved.

		The amending Ordinance will provide that medical referees shall be paid such fees as the Minister determines and make a consequential technical alteration to the regulation making power of the Minister.