Case: Comcare v Canute [2005] FCAFC 262 ; (2005) 148 FCR 232
Outcome: referred to
Recently, in Comcare v Canute [2005] FCAFC 262 ; (2005) 148 FCR 232, the majority of the Full Court (French and Stone JJ) considered both the utility of Treloar's case in construing the SRC Act 's s 4 definition of "disease" and the legislative history of that definition. In dicta, their Honours expressed their own view of what that definition required. Though of some length, their observations need to be set out in full as they are central to this application. 12 French and Stone JJ observed: 63. ... "[The SRC Act ] definition differs from that considered by the Full Court in Treloar . In Treloar , the Full Court was concerned with the antecedent legislation, the Compensation (Commonwealth Government Employees) Act 1971 (Cth) (the 1971 Act), which merely required the employment be 'a contributing factor' to the disease without any requirement that the contribution be 'material'. The Full Court, at 323, said that under the test laid down in the 1971 Act: once it is established that an employee in the doing of his work was exposed to 'a state of affairs to which he would otherwise not have been exposed' or to 'some characteristic of or condition in which the work was to be performed' and that such exposure was in truth a 'contributing' factor to the condition in respect of which he seeks compensation then it matters not whether the contribution was of any particular size or degree ... All that is required is that the relevant aspects of the employment add their measure to the creation of the condition, its aggravation or acceleration. They must, in truth, be part of the cause. If they are not, then, they do not 'contribute'. 64. The Full Court, however, went on to comment on the use of the word, 'material' in cases concerned with the exposition of the concept of 'contributing factor' in the 1971 Act. It did so because the trial judge in Treloar had made the following comment: The test propounded by the 1971 Act, like the test propounded by the [SRC Act] requires that there be a contribution of a causal nature and therefore that the contribution be causally significant or, to use another term, material. Australian Telecommunications Commission v Treloar (1989) 11 AAR 69 at 71. Responding to this comment, the Full Court said (at 323): The use of the word 'material' in conjunction with the words 'contributing factor' in the [1971 Act], where it has occurred in expositions of the section in other cases clearly is not intended to add to the section any significance which is not already to be found in the words used by the legislature. It has served only to emphasise that the section is not brought into play unless it be established by evidence that features of the employment did in fact and in truth contribute to the condition complained of. The causal connection must be established on the probabilities and not left in the area of possibility or conjecture. Once the link is established, however, it matters not that the contribution be large or small. 65. In Suters v Australian Postal Corp (1992) 28 ALD 320, Ryan J, while recognising that Treloar was concerned with legislation in which the word, 'material' did not appear, commented that 'the case nonetheless contains a valuable exposition of the meaning of that word to which courts and tribunals are entitled to have regard when considering legislation containing it'. 66. Insofar as his Honour was of the view that Full Court's comments in Treloar may be helpful in ascertaining the meaning of the term generally, we agree. This does not mean, however, that the comments of the Full Court apply to the use of the term in the definition of disease in s 4 of the SRC Act . Such an approach would fail to have sufficient regard to the legislative history that led to the enactment of the present legislation. The SRC Act , known as the Commonwealth Employees' Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth) when first enacted, repealed the 1971 Act and introduced a new scheme of compensation and rehabilitation. One of the changes from the 1971 Act was the introduction of a requirement that the employee show that their employment contributed 'in a material degree' to the contraction of the disease. In the Second Reading Speech to the Commonwealth Employees' Rehabilitation and Compensation Bill 1988 (Cth), which (with immaterial amendments) became the SRC Act , the Minister for Social Security stated: Under the existing Act an employee was required to establish only that his or her employment was a contributing factor in the contraction of a disease. This test does not adequately reflect the rights and obligations of the Commonwealth and its employees in relation to work-related disease and frequently results in the Commonwealth being liable to pay compensation for diseases which have little, if any, connection with employment. This Bill seeks to remedy that situation by requiring an employee to show that his or her employment contributed in a material degree to the contraction of the disease. The Government believes that this is a test which is firm but fair and which properly reflects the balance between the interests of the Commonwealth as employer and its employees. An employee will not be required to show that his or her employment caused the disease, or even that it was the most important factor in the contraction of the disease. It is intended that the test will require an employee to demonstrate that his or her employment was more than a mere contributing factor in the contraction of the disease. Accordingly, it will be necessary for an employee to show that there is a close connection between the disease and the employment in which he or she was engaged . In determining whether employment contributed in a material degree to the contraction of a disease in a particular case, regard would be had to whether the employment in which the employee was engaged carried an inherent risk of the employee contracting the disease in question and whether some characteristic or feature of the employment tended to cause, aggravate or accelerate the disease. A disease which has been contributed to in a material degree by employment will be deemed to be an injury. Compensation will be payable if that injury results in the death, incapacity or impairment of the employee. (Emphasis added.) Second Reading Speech, Australia, House of Representatives, Debates, 27 April 1988, p 2191. 67. On this basis, the observations of the Full Court in Treloar at 323 that the relevant causal connection must be established on the balance of probabilities and not left in the area of possibility of conjecture are not controversial. Equally, it is plain that the present legislation was not intended to require that an employee demonstrate that their employment caused the disease or that it was the most important factor. It would also appear that the imposition of a 'but for' test remains inappropriate. Having said this, the changes brought about by the enactment of the SRC Act were intended to require that the contribution be 'more than a mere contributing factor' and, as such, the comments of the Court in Treloar must be assessed in this light. Content must be given to the word 'material' contained in the definition of 'disease' in the legislation as it presently stands. The inclusion of this term imposes an evaluative threshold below which a causal connection may be disregarded . However, it is not necessary for present purposes to consider the proper meaning of 'material' and nothing more need to said about this issue": emphasis added. 13 The modern approach to statutory interpretation, as is now well accepted, attributes a greater significance to context and legislative purpose than previously was the case: see CIC Insurance Ltd v Bankstown Football Club Ltd [1997] HCA 2 ; (1997) 187 CLR 384, at 408. That approach, in my respectful view, was adopted unexceptionably by French and Stone JJ in Canute in their treatment of the legislative history of the definition of "disease" in the SRC Act . I agree with what their Honours have said and, in particular, in their conclusion that the inclusion of the word "material" imposes an "evaluative threshold" below which a causal connection may be disregarded.