McEwan and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned an appeal by Mr. McEwan against a decision by Comcare regarding his claim for compensation for a psychological injury allegedly sustained during his employment with NBN Co. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was required to determine whether Mr. McEwan suffered an "ailment" for the purposes of the *Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988* (Cth) and, if so, whether his employment contributed to that ailment to a significant degree.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether Mr. McEwan's condition constituted an "ailment" as defined by the Act, and whether his employment with NBN Co was a significant contributing factor to this ailment. The Tribunal also considered whether the ailment constituted a "disease" under section 5B of the Act.

The Tribunal found that while Mr. McEwan claimed to suffer from major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder, the evidence supporting this diagnosis, particularly the psychiatric assessments conducted retrospectively and via telehealth, was problematic and inconsistent with other evidence. The Tribunal preferred the contemporaneous records from the Mater Hospital Mental Health Unit and the evidence of Dr. Lee, concluding that Mr. McEwan suffered from an "adjustment disorder" in November 2018, which qualified as an "ailment" under the Act. However, the Tribunal was not persuaded that Mr. McEwan's employment contributed to this ailment to a significant degree, finding that his own narrative of bullying and harassment was largely uncorroborated, self-serving, and exaggerated, and that his recollections lacked the detail present in his diary entries. The Tribunal concluded that the evidence suggested differences of opinion and disagreements rather than bullying or harassment.