The ACT's construction industry has been marked as the nation's worst when it comes to serious long-term work related injury claims, while Canberra's overall work injury rates rise as the rest of Australia's fall.
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A Safe Work Australia report comparing the performance of all states and territories on workplace safety and injury claim rates was released on Friday.
It shows the incidence rate of "long-term serious injuries and disease claims" in Canberra has risen from 4.3 for every 1000 workers in 2011-12 to 5.5 on the same measure in 2014-15 - while the national average over the same period fell from 4.0 to 3.1 claims for every 1000 employees as rates in every other jurisdiction fell.
The figures also mark four years since the 'Getting Home Safely' review was ordered in the wake of a series of construction industry deaths, a review meant to improve safety, lower injury rates and change the culture on Canberra's building sites.
While the ACT's overall "serious injury claim rate" - or all injuries needing a week or more to recover - fell from 12.5 claims to 12.3 for every 1000 workers over the four year period, other states had much greater falls and the national average fell 12.4 to 10.5 over that period.
The report also reveals that in three out of the four years to 2014-15, the ACT's construction industry had the highest rate of serious injury claims of construction industries in all jurisdictions.
It shows the rates of all "serious claims" in the ACT's building sector risen from 26.7 for every 1000 workers to 29.1 in 2014-15, apart from an unusual, one-year low of 21.8 rate in 2013-14.
That compares to the national average in the industry, which consistently fell during the period, from 15 such claims for every 1000 workers in 2011-12 to 13.8 in 2012-13, down to 12.8 in 2013-14 and down again to 10.1 in 2014-15.
Worksafe ACT commissioner Greg Jones said that while there was an overall fall in the "serious injury rate", "the incidence of long-term serious injuries warrants further investigation to identify attributable causes".
Mr Jones said the government had made progress since the Getting Home Safely report, including more proactive compliance and auditing, and reducing the "lost time to injury from 2228 in 2011-12 to 1882 in 2014-15.
He said the figures could also be affected by state and differences in compensation scheme and whether an injured worker returned to work immediately or not.
But he said the government analyse private industry workers' compensation data in the ACT to "identify attributable causes for the increase in long-term serious injuries".
CFMEU ACT secretary Dean Hall called for an "immediate investigation" in Worksafe ACT's compliance and resourcing, as well as the Department of Public Prosecutions' ability to prosecute companies when workers were injured.
"It's a problem across the whole country, inadequate laws that are compounded by poor investigation that leads to failed prosecutions," Mr Hall said.
Master Builders' Association chief executive Kirk Coningham said was "still a long way to go" on work safety in Canberra, but defended Worksafe ACT.
"It has been years since the old approach built on raised fists and we as an industry think that handshakes are delivering much better results," he said.
