Category: workers compensation

Legal changes for Victoria’s workers’ compensation laws

As workers’ compensation keeps bubbling away as a political issues in South Australia ahead of this weekend’s State election, other Australian States are not sitting still on workers’ compensation.

Amendments to Victoria’s workers’ compensation system have passed through Parliament on 11 March 2010 enacting most of the findings of the 2007 Hanks inquiry.  The laws will be gradually introduced but with most effective from 5 April 2010.

The best summary of the amended laws is on the Victorian WorkCover website. Continue reading “Legal changes for Victoria’s workers’ compensation laws”

Workers’ compensation forum online – excerpt

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. Continue reading “Workers’ compensation forum online – excerpt”

Maybe Australia is looking in the wrong direction on harmonising workers’ compensation

South Australia has pledged to increase competition in its local workers’ compensation scheme in the hope of improving (some say fixing) it.  Most other Australian States have a competitive structure with private insurers.  In a couple of years, those insurers will be battling it out to achieve national coverage as the Federal Government moves to harmonise the State systems.

New data from Canada shows that perhaps Australia needs to take a deep breath and nationalise workers’ compensation for the good of the injured workers and business.

A February 2010 report from the Institute for Work & Health has concluded that

“The public administration of workers’ compensation in the Canadian systems provides a strong economic benefit to employers, arising from the lower administrative costs of a single public agency compared with the costs arising in a competitive insurance market. Continue reading “Maybe Australia is looking in the wrong direction on harmonising workers’ compensation”

Food parcels required by some injured workers in South Australia

An independent member of the South Australian Parliament, Ann Bressington, has revealed that some injured workers in South Australia are receiving food parcels because their income is so low that they are living on bread and instant soup.

In a media statement released on 2 March 2010 (not yet available online), Bressington said

“Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson and I have both found ourselves in the position of having to provide food to injured workers because some were living on nothing more than dry bread and packet soups and unable to afford their medications.   It is a sad indictment of our government’s commitment to its constituents when sick, injured and vulnerable people are forced into this position….they have been thrown out in the cold and literally left to starve”. (link added)

The media statement was issued in support of the 10th WorkCover Public Forum scheduled for 4 March 2010 in the Way Hall, 10 Pitt St, Adelaide.

Bressington and McKenzie-Ferguson recently commented on WorkCover issues in SafetyAtWorkBlog.

Kevin Jones

Some families in South Australia blame WorkCover for their partners’ suicides

In January 2010, Today Tonight in South Australia aired a disturbing report about the workers compensation reforms in that State.  It talks to two widows who blame WorkCover SA as contributing to their husbands’ suicides.  One man left a suicide note explicitly blaming WorkCover SA, emphasising his point by jumping to his death from the sixth floor of the WorkCover office building.

The video report is available HERE under the title WorkCover Suicide.

One of those interviewed in the story is Kevin Purse who undertook a report into the SA workers’ compensation system on behalf of SA Unions.   Continue reading “Some families in South Australia blame WorkCover for their partners’ suicides”

Discussion paper on Queensland workers compensation released

The Queensland Government has released a public discussion paper into its workers’ compensation scheme.  Obviously this was part of the reason for the political argy-bargy in the State in late February 2010 over a report by Deloitte.

A major question posed in the discussion paper concerns the application of Whole Person Impairment (WPI) or Work-Related Impairment (WRI) as the assessment process.  Currently only Queensland applies WRI and so the submissions to this discussion process may be quite useful in anticipation of the any review into the national workers’ compensation arrangements.   Continue reading “Discussion paper on Queensland workers compensation released”

SA Liberal party policy on WorkCover

It is less than  a month to the state election in South Australia so policies are being released frequently.  This week the South Australia Liberal Party released a WorkCover policy – 18 pages  saying it will “fix Labor’s mess”.

The policy is linked to through this blog article for several reasons.  Many Australia States have elections in 2010 and in most States, the Liberal Party is in opposition.  The SA policy may indicate some of the measures to be promoted in other States elections.

Also, policy statements tend to be quietly dropped from party websites and agenda if they become embarrassing after a loss.   Continue reading “SA Liberal party policy on WorkCover”

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