{"id":"F2009B00116","name":"Commonwealth Employees' Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 - Notice of Declaration under subsection 5(6) (Notice No. 4 of 1991)","slug":"f2009b00116","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":326804,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2009B00116-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-08","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commonwealth Employees' Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 - Notice of Declaration under subsection 5(6) (Notice No. 4 of 1991)","content":"COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA\n\nCOMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEES’ REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION ACT 1988\n\nNOTICE OF DECLARATION\n\nNotice No 4 of 1991\n\nI, Peter Francis Salmon Cook, Minister of State for Industrial Relations, hereby declare under subsection 5(6) of the Commonwealth Employees’ Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 –\n\n(a) that a person who is included in a class of persons specified in the first column of the following table, being a class of persons who engage in activities or perform acts at the request or direction, or for the benefit, of the Commonwealth, shall for the purposes of the Act, be taken to be employed by the Commonwealth; and\n\n(b) that the employment of the person shall, for the purposes of the act, be taken to be constituted by the performance by the person of an act or acts included in the class of acts specified in the second column of that table opposite to the reference to that class of persons.\n\n| FIRST COLUMNCLASS OF PERSONS                                                                                                                                                            | SECOND COLUMNCLASS OF ACTS                                            |\n| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| Persons who, at the request or direction of an officer of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, render assistance in activities relating to Australia’s national interest. | Acts performed in connection with the carrying out of the activities. |\n\n(signed)\n\nPeter Cook\n\nMinister for Industrial Relations\n\n15 July 1991","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"Yes. The notice expands the Act’s coverage beyond formal Commonwealth staff by declaring certain assistants to ASIO (those acting at an ASIO officer’s request, direction, or for the Commonwealth’s benefit) to be ‘employed by the Commonwealth’ for the Act’s purposes. It therefore brings those persons’ qualifying acts within the Act’s rehabilitation and compensation regime, as effected by the Minister’s declaration under subsection 5(6)."},"complexity_factors":["Reliance on an indeterminate phrase: “activities relating to Australia’s national interest” is not defined in the notice, creating interpretive uncertainty about covered activities.","Multiple triggering predicates: coverage attaches where assistance is given “at the request or direction, or for the benefit, of the Commonwealth”, producing several alternative legal bases (request, direction, benefit).","Administrative discretion: the instrument is a Ministerial declaration made under subsection 5(6), so the Executive can extend coverage by declaration rather than by primary legislation.","Evidentiary difficulty: ASIO-related work may be classified or secret, complicating proof of the triggering request/direction and the connection between acts and covered activities for claimants and administrators.","Legal effect shift: the notice treats non‑employees as Commonwealth employees for Act purposes, shifting employer liability and administrative responsibility (and associated costs) to the Commonwealth.","Narrow source population: the class is limited to persons assisting at ASIO officers’ request/direction/benefit, which reduces breadth but creates a concentrated beneficiary group with bespoke rules.","Potential overlap with other employment statuses or entitlements, requiring reconciliation between existing contractual arrangements and deemed employment under the Act."],"plain_english_summary":"This ministerial notice makes people who, at the request or direction of an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) officer, assist in activities described as relating to Australia’s national interest be treated as Commonwealth employees for the Commonwealth Employees’ Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. Mechanically, acts done in connection with carrying out those activities count as the person’s “employment”, so rehabilitation and compensation entitlements under the Act apply and the Commonwealth is treated as the employer."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument performs exactly the function intended by subsection 5(6) of the parent Act: extending coverage to specific non-employees who perform work for Commonwealth benefit. The narrow, targeted scope (ASIO covert assistants only) reflects the original legislative intent to handle sensitive security arrangements through ministerial declaration rather than blanket legislative coverage."},"complexity_factors":["Single operative provision with straightforward deeming mechanism","Only one class of persons and one class of acts defined","No cross-references to other legislation beyond the parent Act citation","No defined terms requiring interpretation","Simple two-column table structure with clear conditional logic (if person in Column A performs acts in Column B, deemed employed)","No exceptions, exemptions, or nested conditions"],"plain_english_summary":"This 1991 ministerial declaration treats people who secretly assist ASIO as Commonwealth employees for purposes of the Commonwealth Employees' Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, so they receive the same injury, death and rehabilitation benefits as regular federal staff. It covers informants, contractors or other covert helpers whose assistance is at ASIO’s request, creating a legal fiction that protects them (and their families) without publicly disclosing their role."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/f2009b00116","history":"/api/acts/f2009b00116/history","analysis":"/api/acts/f2009b00116/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/f2009b00116/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/f2009b00116/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/f2009b00116/documents"}}