Civil Liability and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009

Mr Speaker, I rise to contribute to the debate on the Civil Liability and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 introduced by the Attorney-General.

he objective of the Civil Liability and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 is to improve the civil liability and personal injury regime in Queensland.

The Bill includes amendments to various acts.

Whilst the amendments contained in the Bill, are numerous I will confine my comments on the amendments pursuant to Community Organisations which ensure that a volunteer undertaking community work for a Parents and Citizens Association be entitled to the protection from liability.

The LNP supported the original introduction of the Civil Liabilities Bill 2003.  At that time there were serious issues surrounding insurance and liabilities and small community groups unable to obtain insurance because of sky rocketing liabilities. The introduction of a capped civil liability regime was welcomed.

Amendments across the entire regime seek to move various caps out of legislation and allow them to be calculated on a year by year basis. This could have the effect of again locking some smaller community groups and non-profits from gaining insurance because the liabilities may be to high.

Reservation over cost limits in the legislation and replacing it with regulation could be seen as removing additional layers of scrutiny, however, provided that the formula is adhered this should not be an issue.

As previously highlighted, any change to the upper limits of claims need to ensure they will not price out smaller non-profit and community groups from gaining insurance, as was the case previously.

Small sporting groups in my community of Mudgeeraba raised this issue on a recent visit by the Shadow Sports Minister, my colleague, Jack Dempsey, the member for Bundaberg.  These groups are considering a community insurance model to reduce the burden these smaller clubs have to cope with in order to provide insurances and indemnity for our local kids in order for them to play sport.

The LNP previously supported the placing of caps on insurance claims so as to not price out smaller, non-profit, and community groups from obtaining insurance. The amendments maintain a cap that is calculated yearly on the rising cost of living expenses and average income.


The LNP supports this legislation with reservation as to the impact of lifting caps on claims, based on previous issues surrounding high costs of insurance related to not having any ceiling in insurance claims.