CODE 2, VOL 38, NO 9 : 17 april 2024

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CHANGES INTRODUCED TO QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT

INCREASE IN PRESUMPTIVE COVERAGE TO 22 DISEASES

I am pleased to report that after more than a year of work by your union, on Wednesday 17 April, 2024 the Hon Ms Grace Grace, Minister for Industrial Relations introduced a Bill amending the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. I take this opportunity to thank Minister Grace on behalf of all firefighters for her and her department's engagement with your union on the journey to the Bill being tabled today. 

You can find a copy of the Bill here.

The Bill includes a number of positive enhancements to workers’ compensation for UFUQ members, but the most notable is the proposed increase to the number of diseases presumed to be caused by firefighting from 12 to 22.  This increase will result in Queensland firefighters taking the lead in having the most comprehensive coverage of deemed diseases in Australia, and equally comprehensive to any jurisdiction worldwide.

I will provide further Code 2’s about these new laws, including an explanation of the qualifying periods for the newly added diseases and the other enhancements to the Act that will result from the amendments proposed in the Bill.  Your union will make a submission to the parliamentary committee considering the Bill to ensure the changes we have advocated for are carried through into the legislation.

CURRENT 12 diseases:

1. Primary site brain cancer 
2. Primary site bladder cancer 
3. Primary site kidney cancer  
4. Primary non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
5. Primary leukaemia 
6. Primary site breast cancer  
7. Primary site testicular cancer 
8. Multiple myeloma  
9. Primary site prostate cancer  
10. Primary site ureter cancer 
11. Primary site colorectal cancer
12. Primary site oesophageal cancer

PROPOSED additional 10 diseases:

13. Asbestos related diseases
14. Primary site liver cancer
15. Primary site lung cancer
16. Primary site cervical cancer
17. Primary site ovarian cancer
18. Primary site pancreatic cancer
19. Primary site penile cancer
20. Primary site thyroid cancer
21. Malignant mesothelioma
22. Skin cancer

I want to temper this announcement by of course reflecting on the fact that there is nothing to celebrate about a firefighter contracting one of the above illnesses.  As I reported to you in 2023, the World Health organisation has listed the entire profession of firefighting as carcinogenic.

While all is being done to push QFD towards improving their focus on minimising your exposure to the chemicals that cause these diseases (including decontamination), it cannot be ignored that worldwide, regardless of best-practice harm minimisation and decontamination, firefighting causes firefighters to contract diseases more frequently than non-firefighters.

I acknowledge on your behalf that the Miles’ ALP government has recognised and acted on submissions by your state UFUQ on the statistics related to the additional diseases. I can also report that various representatives of the government including Minister Grace met with your union on many occasions to work through our submissions.

In tabling the Bill before the parliament, Minister Grace thanked your union (UFUQ) for advocacy on raising the matter of evidence showing an increase in the number of deemed diseases was needed.

You can be assured that throughout the entire process of obtaining all 22 presumptive laws in Queensland your union (UFUQ) has been at the table obtaining this coverage for you. You can take with a grain of salt the fringe-groups and hangers-on who frequently take credit for historic presumptive cancer achievements. Only your union (the UFUQ) was involved in the extensive process of ensuring this new Bill was introduced as it is. No other union, or association, or other body made any submission that resulted in the Bill being tabled today.

The UFUQ will continue to ensure that when a firefighter is hit with the news that they’ve contracted one of the above 22 diseases, that the process of ensuring compensation is seamlessly arranged as quickly as possible. That’s what presumptive laws do.

And your union continues to monitor world-wide statistics and work being done in prevention, detections, treatment, and reporting of all illnesses that affect firefighters and we will push for further coverage for you when we consider its needed.

John Oliver - General Secretary