Workers Compensation in Canberra and the ACT — The Complete Guide
Injured at work in Canberra? Talk to us. Our doctors, psychologists and physiotherapists see Canberra patients in person and by telehealth.
Different employers mean different claim rules in Canberra. You don’t need to learn any of it: tell us who you work for at the first call and we handle the certificate, the treatment and the paperwork from there.
Talk to Us: One Question Sorts the Rest
Different employers mean different claim rules in Canberra: different certificates, different deadlines, different decision-makers. You don't need to learn any of it: tell us who you work for and we route the whole claim. Want to see where you land? Find your employer below.
If you work for
A private-sector Canberra employer
Hospitality, construction, retail, professional firms, trades
Who pays, and who we deal with, not you
One of five licensed insurers: Allianz, Guild Insurance, QBE, CGU or GIO. WorkSafe ACT regulates the scheme but decides nothing.
If you work for
The Commonwealth (APS)
Australian Government departments, statutory authorities, Defence civilians
Who pays, and who we deal with, not you
A Comcare claims manager determines the claim. The same rules apply wherever in Australia you live or work.
If you work for
The ACT Government (ACTPS)
Public hospital nurses, public school teachers, directorate staff
Who pays, and who we deal with, not you
EML administers ACTPS claims day to day. Not WorkSafe ACT, and not the ACT private scheme.
If you work for
A national self-insured company
Telstra, Australia Post, ANZ, Medibank, ANU and other SRCC licensees
Who pays, and who we deal with, not you
Your employer’s own claims manager determines the claim under the same Commonwealth rules as Comcare.
Serving in the ADF?Military compensation is its own system. It runs through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs under the MRCA, and this guide does not cover it. Defence’s civilian APS staff, on the other hand, are Comcare.
Need to See Someone? We've Got You: In Person Across Canberra or by Telehealth
Doctors for the certificate and the paperwork, psychologists and physiotherapists for the treatment, specialists when you need an opinion. Appointments are in person across Canberra, or by telehealth where that suits you better. One team, one file, whoever you work for.
Doctors: certificates and claim paperwork
Need the certificate that starts your claim? Our doctors write it (and every ongoing certificate after it) at in-person appointments in Canberra, and handle the claim paperwork with you. Only a doctor can certify in every Canberra scheme: any AHPRA-registered doctor for ACT private-sector claims (the Act even lets you nominate a whole medical practice as your treating doctor), and a GP or a specialist such as a psychiatrist for Comcare, ACT Government (EML) and national self-insured employer claims.
Psychologists: psychological injury treatment
If work has affected your mental health, our psychologists can see you in person in Canberra, or by telehealth. Treatment by a psychologist is compensable medical treatment in its own right under the ACT private scheme, and Comcare funds five initial sessions of up to 60 minutes before a Psychology Treatment Plan is needed, with telehealth psychology published at the same rates as in-person consultations up to 90 minutes. A psychologist can never write the certificate in either scheme, which is why the doctor and the psychologist sit on one file here.
Physiotherapists: physical injury treatment
Been injured at work and need a physio? We've got you: hands-on treatment in person in Canberra, with telehealth for reviews. Under Comcare, no medical referral is needed to start physiotherapy; under the ACT private scheme, your insurer approves physiotherapy as compensable treatment case by case. Comcare funds five initial sessions before a Physiotherapy Treatment Plan, and its ACT telehealth physiotherapy items, published from February 2026, carry the same amounts as the equivalent in-person items.
Orthopaedic and specialist opinions
Need a specialist to look at your injury? Ours provide surgical opinions, second opinions, imaging review, reporting to your insurer and post-operative rehabilitation. Both schemes fund surgical and hospital treatment, and neither runs a provider panel or scheme registration for a treating specialist. One thing we will not pretend is settled in advance: where an operation would be performed is decided with you and turns on your insurer's approval.
Two boundaries, stated plainly. Vocational rehabilitation is a separately regulated role in both Canberra schemes and can only be delivered by an approved workplace rehabilitation provider: appointed by the insurer under the ACT private scheme, engaged by the employer under the federal Act. And we are a medical clinic, not a law firm: we do the medical side of a claim, and we do not give legal advice.
Everything above is available in person in Canberra and, where the scheme funds it, by telehealth. Call (02) 7238 7379 and we will arrange the appointment that fits the scheme you are in.
What the ACT Scheme Gives Private-Sector Workers
If you work for a private employer in Canberra, your claim runs under the Workers Compensation Act 1951 (ACT), which carries some of the strongest early-claim protections in the country. Most advice you will find online is written for NSW, so these rarely get mentioned.
Payments start the day you give notice
Weekly compensation must begin when you tell your employer about the injury, before any liability decision. Lodge your claim within 7 days to keep it running.
28 days, and silence is acceptance
The insurer has 28 days to reject your claim. If it does nothing, the claim is deemed accepted. “Not enough time to assess” is not a lawful ground for rejection.
Journey claims are covered
The trip between home and work is compensable in the ACT, a genuine difference from NSW, where journey claims generally are not covered.
Your employer has 48 hours
Your employer must notify its insurer within 48 hours of learning of your injury. Notify late, and the employer personally pays your weekly compensation until notice is given.
Any registered doctor can certify
The certificate of capacity comes from a doctor: any registered medical practitioner. You may nominate a whole medical practice, not just one doctor, as your treating doctor.
The regulator never decides claims
WorkSafe ACT licenses insurers, audits compliance and enforces the Act, but it does not decide claims. The five licensed insurers do.
Just Been Injured? Here’s What Happens Next
This is the path for an ACT private-sector claim, and the deadlines mostly sit on your employer and the insurer, not on you. Step by step, start to finish.
Tell your employer
Give notice of the injury as soon as practicable. An entry in the workplace Register of Injuries counts as notice.
Weekly payments must start
Under section 38, weekly compensation must begin the moment you give notice, before the insurer has decided anything about liability. It is a stronger early-payment rule than most Australian schemes have.
See a doctor, lodge the claim within 7 days
Your claim needs a certificate of capacity from a doctor, any registered doctor, and our doctors write them as everyday clinic work. Lodge the claim form within 7 days of the injury so the automatic payments keep running.
Your employer’s clock is ticking
The employer must notify its insurer within 48 hours of learning of your injury, and forward your claim within 7 days. For a significant injury, the insurer must then contact you, your employer and your treating doctor within 3 business days.
The insurer decides within 28 days
Accept, reject with actual written reasons, or say nothing and the claim is deemed accepted. Payments already made cannot be clawed back.
Treatment and return to work
Treatment costs are covered at reasonable rates, and treatment by a psychologist is expressly listed as compensable. Injuries likely to keep you off work more than 7 days get a personal injury plan, and your employer must offer suitable duties if you ask within 6 months.
What the weekly payments are worth
For the first 26 weeks you receive 100% of your average pre-incapacity weekly earnings, counting every job you hold and regular overtime, not just the job you were injured in. After 26 weeks the rate steps down: 65% if you cannot work at all, with a floor at the national minimum wage ($1,004.90 a week from 1 July 2026), or a 65–100% sliding scale based on how many of your pre-injury hours you are working.
Disputes are different here too: the ACT has no claims tribunal. Rejected claims go to arbitration in the Magistrates Court, which decides on the substantial merits with costs rules that protect honest claimants. And you have 3 years from the injury — or from becoming aware of it — to claim.
Quick Facts: ACT Private Scheme
Day 1
Weekly payments must start when you give notice of the injury, before any liability decision.
48 hrs
Your employer’s deadline to notify its insurer of your injury.
28 days
The insurer’s window to decide. Silence is deemed acceptance.
100%
Of average weekly earnings for the first 26 weeks, with all jobs and regular overtime counted.
5
Licensed insurers decide every private-sector claim: Allianz, Guild, QBE, CGU, GIO.
Psychological Injury Claims in Canberra
Covered whoever you work for. The rules and the paperwork differ with your employer, and our doctors and psychologists handle that part.
Under the ACT private scheme, the definition of injury expressly includes mental injury — the Act’s words are “a physical or mental injury (including stress)” — and treatment by a psychologist is listed in its own right as compensable medical treatment. For gradual-onset conditions, employment must be a substantial contributing factor, and your doctor’s certificate must state whether your condition is consistent with that. It is the single point in the paperwork where the doctor’s wording carries the claim, which is why the certificate is worth doing properly the first time.
There is an exclusion, and it is narrower than most people assume: a mental injury completely or mostly caused by reasonable employer action in relation to transfer, demotion, promotion, performance appraisal, discipline, retrenchment, dismissal or an employment benefit is not compensable. The list is closed, and the exclusion turns on those specific employment decisions. One honest limit worth knowing up front: the ACT’s permanent-impairment lump sum schedule contains no item for psychological injury, so weekly payments, treatment costs and (where relevant) common law damages are the entitlements that matter.
Here is the part most Canberra guides miss: the majority of the city’s psychological injury claims do not run under the private scheme at all. The public service is Canberra’s dominant employer, and public-service claims run under the Commonwealth SRC Act, where psychological claims are roughly a third of claim intake and rising, on Comcare’s own published data. If that is you, start with our Comcare workers compensation guide (Commonwealth employees) or our ACT Government workers compensation guide (ACTPS employees). The tests and the certificates are different there.
Cross the Border for Work? Here's Who Covers You
Thousands of people cross the ACT–NSW border for work every day. The rule that decides which scheme covers them is a short one.
For private-sector jobs, the test asks one question: where do you usually work? Not where you live, not where the head office is, not where the injury happened. The scheme of the place you usually work covers you, and a temporary arrangement of six months or less does not change the answer. ACT and NSW law run mirror-image versions of the same national test (section 36B and section 9AA respectively), so there is always exactly one answer, and no double-dipping.
Live in Queanbeyan, work in Canberra
Private employer, usual workplace in the ACT: the ACT scheme applies and an ACT-licensed insurer pays. Your NSW address is irrelevant.
Live in Canberra, work in Queanbeyan
Private employer, usual workplace in NSW: the NSW scheme applies, with its own certificates, insurers and deadlines.
Commonwealth or national self-insured employer
The SRC Act follows your employer, not geography. An APS employee living in Queanbeyan — or Wagga, or anywhere — is a Comcare claimant, full stop.
Landed on the NSW side of the border? Our guide to workers compensation in NSW covers that scheme end to end, and our NSW psychological injury guide does the same for mental health claims.
One Clinic, One Team, One File, Whoever You Work For
WorkCover Hub is a clinic: our doctors, our psychologists, our physiotherapists, one team on one file. In the ACT that structure is not just convenient, it is exactly what the law rewards: the private scheme lets you nominate a medical practice as your treating doctor, and the Commonwealth scheme requires a doctor’s certificate and a doctor’s referral before psychology treatment can be funded. Doctor, psychologist and physiotherapist working from one clinical record is the shape a Canberra claim actually needs.
- ✓Certificates with our doctors: the certificate of capacity, and every ongoing certificate, written by doctors who know which scheme they are writing for, at in-person appointments in Canberra
- ✓Treatment from our psychologists and physiotherapists: in person in Canberra or by telehealth, with the referrals and treatment plans each scheme requires handled in-house
- ✓Telehealth at scheme parity: for Comcare claims, telehealth psychology and the ACT telehealth physiotherapy items carry the same amounts as the equivalent in-person items on Comcare’s current published rates (checked August 2026), so choosing telehealth for treatment is about convenience, not cost
- ✓Specialist and surgical opinions: orthopaedic and specialist consultations, second opinions, imaging review and insurer reporting, with the honest caveat that where any operation happens is decided with you and turns on insurer approval
- ✓One question, asked first: the first thing we ask is who you work for, so your claim starts in the right system instead of being unwound from the wrong one
Canberra Workers Compensation FAQs
Guides for Every Canberra Scheme
The rules follow your employer, so pick the guide that matches yours.
Every Part of a Canberra Claim, on One File
We see workers from every district of the capital, in person and by telehealth. Start with whoever you need first. The rest of the team is on the same file when you need them.
Find Your Suburb
We see Canberra patients in person and by telehealth. Pick the suburb you live or work in to see how we help people injured at work there.
Belconnen
Gungahlin
Inner North
Inner South
Tuggeranong
Molonglo Valley
Who pays depends on who you work for, and we sort that out on the first call. If you would rather know before you ring, check which scheme covers you.
Injured at Work in Canberra?
Whoever you work for, the first step is the same: a doctor who knows the paperwork. Ours see Canberra patients in person, with our psychologists and physiotherapists working from the same file.
Call (02) 7238 7379