ACT taxpayers could be ''cross-subsidising'' workers' compensation payouts to federal bureaucrats, according to a new review of the Comcare insurance scheme.
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Former Defence Department head Allan Hawke says that a separate fund should be set up within Comcare for the ACT so that its workers' insurance premiums are not lumped in with those of Commonwealth agencies.
The Canberra Times revealed in March that the territory government was considering walking away from its deal with the federal workplace insurer after premium bills soared 100 per cent in seven years.
Territory taxpayers paid more than $70 million this year to insure against public servant workers' compensation claims, up from $35 million in 2006-07.
One agency, ACTION buses, paid $8.8 million in workers' compensation premiums this year - far in excess of the $5.8 million the network paid to insure its buses, depots, machinery and passengers.
The territory complains that its improved performance in reducing claims numbers and speedier returns to work were not being reflected in the premiums charged by Comcare.
In his report to federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, Dr Hawke noted that the territory's premiums and those of Common-wealth departments all went into the same fund and all claims were paid from the same funds.
''As a result, there is limited visibility of how premiums from different government sources are spent, meaning premiums from one government could be subsidising the other, contrary to the Premium Guidelines,'' he wrote. ''Having separate funds would enable the true performance of each fund to be properly assessed.''