Recent amendments are contained within the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2025 and the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Reform and Modernisation) Act 2026. Detailed regulations were published in June 2026.
Changes to psychological injury claims – traumatic events or relevant conduct events
- The new legislation applies to “notifications” provided from 1 July 2026. Notifications before that date remain under the earlier
- The main change relates to psychological. The legislation restricts compensable psychological injuries only to “traumatic” events or “relevant conduct” events.
- This means psychological injury arising from circumstances that fall outside of a traumatic event or relevant conduct event will not be
- Traumatic events are:
- an act of violence, or a threat of violence; or
- indictable criminal conduct; or
- witnessing:
- a traumatic incident happen; or
- a deceased or seriously injured person at the scene of a traumatic incident; or
- experiencing vicarious trauma; or
- a prescribed
- Relevant conduct events are:
- sexual harassment; or
- racial harassment; or
- bullying; or
- excessive work
- A new process for lodging a claim, including the requirement of a claim form, now applies for psychological injuries arising from a relevant conduct has been lodged, an “interim” payment can apply for up to 56 days whilst a claim is investigated.
- The amendments reduce entitlement to weekly compensation benefits for a psychological injury to 130 weeks with only limited
- Access to permanent impairment claims and “thresholds” for extended compensation benefits have been amended with staggered increases to the relevant impairment thresholds scheduled over the next three
- If there is a dispute as to whether a relevant conduct event occurred, it must now proceed for determination with the Industrial Relations Commission (“IRC”). A specialist jurisdiction within the IRC has been established.
- The definition of “reasonable management action” has been extended which will significantly expand the opportunities for an employer to defend a claim for psychological
Non-Psychological Injury Amendments
- The test for payment of medical treatment expenses has been amended from 1 October 2026. This new test requires the proposed treatment to be “reasonable and necessary”. This is a dual test and the requirement for treatment to be “necessary” will be contentious.
- The legislation now makes clear that an employer cannot attend a medical consultation or treatment consultation unless requested to do so by an injured This is a positive development that should minimise the intrusion of non-allied health qualified employer representatives attending injured workers’ medical treatment and consultation.
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