Vasquez and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned an application before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) between Mr Vasquez (the Applicant) and Comcare (the Respondent). The dispute centred on whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to consider evidence and submissions relating to a mental injury that arose from events in 2014, which had previously been the subject of an earlier workers' compensation claim. This earlier claim had been discontinued by the Applicant and subsequently dismissed by the Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the provisions of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth) (AAT Act), specifically section 42A, operated to prevent the Applicant from raising material from 2014 in the current 2019 application, given that a previous application concerning that material had been discontinued and dismissed. The Respondent sought to exclude this evidence, arguing that the prior dismissal precluded its consideration.

The Tribunal reasoned that a fair reading of the current application encompassed the timeframe including the 2014 events. It determined that the provisions of the AAT Act, including subsection 42A(1A) and (1B) which deem a discontinued application as dismissed, did not limit the Applicant's right to raise this material in the context of the 2019 claim. The Tribunal concluded that the 2014 material was part of the current claim and therefore allowed it to be litigated. The Tribunal therefore held that it had jurisdiction to consider the material subject of the previous, discontinued application.