Hanel and Comcare (Compensation)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application by Mr Hanel (the applicant) concerning his claims for compensation under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth) (SRC Act). The dispute arose when the applicant failed to attend three scheduled independent medical examinations (IMEs) requested by Comcare (the respondent) and subsequently received a Notice of Intention to Suspend his claims. The applicant argued that he had reasonable excuses for his non-attendance and that the respondent lacked the power to issue the notices while his applications were before the Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had a reasonable excuse for failing to attend the IMEs as required by a notice issued under section 57(1)(b) of the SRC Act. A related issue was whether the Tribunal had the jurisdiction to review Comcare's decision to suspend the applicant's claims under section 57(2) of the SRC Act, or whether such a suspension was a jurisdictional fact that prevented the Tribunal from proceeding with the review of the underlying compensation claims.

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant's subjective belief that the IMEs were unlawful, based on his interpretation of the SRC Act and the AAT Act, did not constitute a reasonable excuse for failing to attend. The Tribunal affirmed that the power to require an IME under section 57 of the SRC Act remained with Comcare, and that the AAT's jurisdiction was limited to reviewing "reviewable decisions" as defined by section 60 of the SRC Act. Crucially, decisions made under section 57 were not included in the definition of reviewable decisions. Therefore, the Tribunal held that it did not have the jurisdiction to review Comcare's suspension decision itself, but it could determine whether the jurisdictional facts for a suspension under section 57(1) had been satisfied.

The Tribunal concluded that the applicant had failed to provide a reasonable excuse for his non-attendance at the IME. Consequently, Comcare was entitled to issue a notice of suspension under section 57(2) of the SRC Act. As the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to review this suspension decision, it dismissed the applicant's applications for review of his compensation claims.