Issue 08: SRC Act, AI, and your determinations

What shipped

1. 1

   Comcare publishes AI tooling guidance for licensed authorities

   Comcare released expectations for AI used in claims operations, focusing on transparency, human oversight, and audit trails for any tool that influences a determination.

   Source →
2. 2

   AGS issues memo on AI-generated material in administrative decisions

   The Australian Government Solicitor warned that AI-generated reasoning attached to a delegate decision must be verifiable, with the human decision-maker accountable for every line.

   Source →
3. 3

   Federal Court flags AI-drafted submissions in administrative matters

   A new Federal Court practice note expects parties to disclose where generative AI assisted document preparation and to verify all citations before filing.

   Source →

Four actions WC case managers can take this week.

This week is Workers Compensation. The four actions assume you work inside a Comcare-licensed authority and influence determinations under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. Each is achievable in a working week and produces a record you can show your delegate.

• One. Draft a one-paragraph AI use disclosure for your team's determination template. State whether AI assisted any document preparation, what was checked, and by whom.
• Two. Build a five-row AI tool register for your section. Tool, purpose, data classification, last review, human reviewer. Treat de-identified test prompts as one row.
• Three. Run a paper-only walk-through of one open determination. Where could AI have helped, where would it have created a risk, and what evidence would the file need to defend the choice?
• Four. Talk to your delegate before any pilot. A two-minute conversation about the new Comcare expectations protects your file and your delegate's reasoning record.

These actions sit before any tool is procured. They produce the evidence trail the AGS memo expects and the audit trail Comcare wants. None require a budget.

Why AI-assisted determinations need a new evidence trail.

Visual 1. Indicative evidence-trail steps for an AI-assisted determination. Sources: Comcare AI tooling guidance, AGS legal briefing 121. Indicative only.

Prompt of the month

Prompt of the week.

Setup: This prompt produces a draft AI use disclosure paragraph for a determination, plus a delegate verification checklist. Paste a de-identified case summary and tool details into the inputs. The model returns a disclosure paragraph, a five-step verification checklist, and a flag list of items the delegate must personally verify before signing.

You are a workers compensation policy assistant working with a Comcare-licensed authority under the SRC Act 1988. You support a delegate making a determination on a liability or incapacity question.

Inputs I will provide:
- Type of determination (liability, incapacity, calculation, rehabilitation).
- Tool used and purpose (for example, Claude for summarising treating practitioner reports).
- Data fields the tool saw, all already de-identified by the user before pasting.
- Any draft text the tool produced.
- Delegate name role only, no personal identifiers.

Produce:
1. A draft AI use disclosure paragraph for the determination file, no longer than 80 words, factual, neutral in tone.
2. A five-step delegate verification checklist tailored to the determination type.
3. A flag list of items the delegate must personally verify before signing, with a short reason for each.

Do not invent facts the inputs do not mention. Where the inputs are insufficient, state what additional information the delegate would need. Treat any claimant identifier as a sign that the input was not properly de-identified and stop.

How to use it: Run it once with a de-identified scenario. Confirm de-identification before pasting. Review the disclosure paragraph against your authority's template wording and edit for tone. Save the verification checklist as part of the determination file.

Risk: Models will draft confident-sounding disclosures even when the inputs are thin. Treat every output as a starting draft. The delegate's verification step is where the legal weight sits.

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