Commonwealth Numbered Acts

COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEES' REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION ACT 1988 No. 75 of 1988 - SECT 119

119. (1) If:

   (a)  an employee recovers State compensation in respect of an injury to the
        employee or in respect of the loss of, or damage to, property used by
        the employee; or

   (b)  State compensation is recovered by, or for the benefit of, a dependant
        of a deceased employee; the succeeding provisions of this section have
        effect.

(2) Subject to this section, the compensation that is payable under this Act
to the employee in respect of the injury, loss or damage, or for the benefit
of the dependant in respect of the injury that resulted in the death, as the
case may be, is so much (if any) of the compensation under this Act that, but
for this section, would be so payable as exceeds the amount of State
compensation recovered by the employee or by, or for the benefit of, the
dependant, as the case may be.

(3) Subject to this section, if, before the recovery of State compensation by
or for the benefit of the employee or dependant, compensation under this Act
was paid to the employee by a relevant authority in respect of the injury,
loss or damage, or for the benefit of the dependant in respect of the injury
that resulted in the death, as the case may be, the employee or dependant is
liable to pay to the relevant authority:

   (a)  the amount of the compensation paid by it under this Act; or

   (b)  the amount of the State compensation recovered by the employee or for
        the benefit of the dependant; whichever is less.

(4) Where:
(a) a person (in this subsection called "the debtor") is liable to pay an
amount to a relevant authority under this section; and

   (b)  any other person holds on behalf of the debtor:

        (i)    money, being compensation payable under this Act for the
               benefit of, or State compensation payable to, the debtor; or

        (ii)   investments acquired out of money of a kind referred to in
               subparagraph (i); the other person shall:

   (c)  deduct from the money so held, or realise those investments so held
        and deduct from the proceeds of the realisation, an amount not
        exceeding the amount referred to in paragraph (a); and

   (d)  pay the amount so deducted to the relevant authority; and the payment
        of that amount is, to the extent of the amount paid, a discharge of
        the liability of the debtor to the relevant authority and of the other
        person to the debtor.

(5) A reference in subsection (3) to compensation under this Act that was paid
for the benefit of a dependant does not include a reference to compensation
paid under subsection 17 (5).

(6) Where an employee, or a dependant of an employee, establishes, to the
satisfaction of the relevant authority, that the whole or part of the State
compensation referred to in subsection (2) recovered by the employee or by, or
on behalf of, the dependant, as the case may be, did not relate to an injury,
loss or damage, in respect of which compensation is payable under this Act,
this section has effect in relation to that employee or that dependant, as the
case may be, as if the amount of the State compensation recovered by that
employee or that dependant were an amount equal to so much (if any) of the
amount of the specified compensation as did relate to an injury, loss or
damage, in respect of which compensation is payable under this Act to that
employee or that dependant, as the case may be.

(7) In this section:

"State compensation" means compensation recoverable under a specified law;

"specified law" means a law of a State or of a Territory that provides for the
payment of compensation, other than workers' compensation, and is declared by
the Minister, by notice in writing, to be a specified law for the purposes of
this Act.