Employment and Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2009 (37 of 2009)

Schedule 1   Amendments relating to compensation

Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988

2   After section 13

Insert:

13AA Indexation - Wage Price Index

Definitions

(1) In this section:

index number , in relation to a quarter, means:

(a) the Wage Price Index (total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses/all sectors/all Australia/original) number published by the Australian Statistician in respect of that quarter; or

(b) if:

(i) a series of index numbers is prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph; and

(ii) the Australian Statistician publishes an index number in respect of the quarter; and

(iii) that index number belongs to the series;

that index number.

relevant amount means the amount specified in subsection 17(3), (4) or (5).

relevant year means:

(a) the financial year starting on 1 July 2009; or

(b) a later financial year.

Indexation

(2) If the indexation factor for a relevant year is greater than one, this Act has effect as if for each relevant amount there were substituted, on the first day of that relevant year, an amount calculated by multiplying by that factor:

(a) if, because of one or more other applications of this section, this Act has effect as if another amount or amounts were substituted for the relevant amount - the substituted amount or the last substituted amount; or

(b) in any other case - the relevant amount.

Indexation factor

(3) For the purposes of this section, the indexation factor for a relevant year is the number calculated, to 3 decimal places, using the formula:

Index number for the reference December quarter / Index number for the base December quarter

where:

base December quarter means the last December quarter before the reference December quarter.

reference December quarter means the last December quarter before the relevant year.

(4) If the number calculated under subsection (3) for a relevant year would, if it were calculated to 4 decimal places, end with a number greater than 4, the number so calculated is increased by 0.001.

Other provisions

(5) Subject to subsection (6), if at any time, whether before or after the commencement of this section, the Australian Statistician has published or publishes an index number for a quarter in substitution for an index number previously published for that quarter, the publication of the later index number is to be disregarded for the purposes of this section.

(6) If at any time, whether before or after the commencement of this section, the Australian Statistician has changed or changes the reference base for:

(a) the Wage Price Index; or

(b) another index;

then, for the purposes of the application of this section after the change took place or takes place, regard is to be had only to the index number published in terms of the new reference base.