On 4 March 2010, the Work Injured Resource Connection conducted a forum in South Australia. Several politicians who have expressed an interest or have an active interest in workers’ compensation were present.
Part of the forum has been uploaded on Youtube and is included below. The speaker in this video, Robert Brokenshire, represents the Family First party in the South Australian Parliament. Much of this part of his presentation reflects public statements that Brokenshire and others have made in relation to the State’s workers’ compensation system.
The significance of this video is not necessarily the content, as much of the short video is familiar. It may be more about the way that Australian lobby groups and social organisations involved with workers’ compensation and injured workers are finally beginning to use the new media technologies to increase their presence and, perhaps, influence.
Not all the politicians who attended the WIRC forum are up for re-election this month. The line-up included
Iain Evans – Shadow Minister
Ann Bressington – Independent MLC
Robert Brokenshire – Family First MLC
Mark Parnell – Greens MLC
Hi
I have been reading with interest the comments made on your site. I am 60 years of age have worked full time nursing until l the age age of 58 with I sustained a very nasty injury to my neck whilst on night shift retrieving a very large man out of a faulty stand up lifter which became jammed leaving no alternative but to to lift this 90 kg agitated gentle man up and out of this faulty machine. Two staff remote hospital with no assistance available to us. Well since then I have been through hell and back with EML my employer and work cover. Words cannot describe the nightmare. All I can say is their is no justice for an injured worker. 14 Doctors are involved with my case 6 of those IMC\’s for EML and Work Cover and you guessed it what my doctors say is irrelevant to my case. We have no legal challenge for Discrimination , Disability, Harassment Depression loss of income Pain and suffering unless we are lucky enough to receive a Medical assessment of greater than 10 percent, this is quite impossible with the assessment system work cover has in place and their IMC\’s saying I am 6 percent and my Specialist saying greater than 15 percent What I can\’t understand is why anyone would want to be on workers compensation because in the long run we are the loser of our pre-injury incomes mine was $65000 per year now it is $19292 with no government assistance like health card etc many of us loose, our homes, have family breakdowns and loss of our integrity you name it we are classed as the perpetrators of society not by the public but the Insurer, employer and work cover.
I feel it is time that a class action was commenced to fight back and just show the hierarchy that the people do have a voice and can change this dreadful system in the future its too late for me but the gratitude of stopping this in justice for future injured workers would be the greatest outcome of all
Now I am embarrassed.
For the most part others notice my work far more than I do.
Good afternoon Kevin,
a friend of mine sent this blog site to me and I have been following some of the inserts re the WorkCover system in South Australia. -I am employed as a rehab provider within the SA WorkCover system.
I have heard of Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson and just lately I have read a great many of her comments here on your blog site. But like many people I really am wondering just what it is that makes Rosemary so very special to the injured workers who trust her in ways I have never seen before.
Many of my work counterparts tell me that if they see rosemary\’s name on a file they know that the injured worker has the best advocate in the industry working for the injured worker. As yet I have not had any contact with Rosemary, so I guess you could say I am fascinated by the unknown quanity of just who she is.
Do you have any artiles that you have written in regard to Rosemary?
Colin
Collin
I don\’t know if Rosemary has enough time to write articles. Many of her comments to SafetyAtWorkBlog come around out of business hours. In fact one was submitted at 4am?!
Many of the mentions of Rosemary in my blog articles have links to other articles about, and mentions of, Rosemary, which are a good place to start.
I have met Rosemary only once. I think the secret to Rosemary\’s acceptance is that she listens. In my experience many people who are injured or ill feel vulnerable and alone, particularly if they need to battle with a bureaucracy.
As Rosemary has said in one of her comments, she is one of the few advocates in this area of healthcare in Australia. It is good to hear that she has established an admired reputation in the sector.
The interesting thing about the Forum -this was the 10th Forum that WIRC has run- is that the industry in general has kept telling us that injured workers need to be organised into a large group so that the large group can be heard as one voice. Now with this set of clips on-line, the industry is about to find out just how organised we are and that regardless of what negative threats that case managers make, we have united under the banner of Work Injured Resource Connection.
Whilst EML and WorkCover have attended other Forums, this was the first time that any one from the Ministers office has attended – admittedly he did not stay very long, however he was there not just to see who was speaking, but to see how many injured workers attended.
The biggest disappointment was that he left before the question/answer session so he did not get to hear the amount of contempt that injured workers, lawyers, family members, employers have for the way the current system is running.
The other interesting thing that several of us noted was that EML [2] and WorkCover [5 including the Deputy CEO] staff and the person from Minister Caica\’s did not sit together.
Mayhaps that was so as not to draw attention, or mayhaps it was because they really don\’t like each other.