NSW Labor workers comp reform to be referred to inquiry despite pleas for urgency

West Australian

05-06-2025

Labor's controversial plan to reform workers compensation in NSW has suffered another blow after being referred to an inquiry, despite a plea by the Treasurer that it be urgently passed.
The NSW government is attempting to pass amended plans to reform workers compensation before July 1, having faced significant opposition from the unions and the Opposition.
Liberal leader Mark Speakman said the Coalition was in favour of reform to the beleaguered system, but only with key amendments – if not, they will seek to send it to an inquiry.
The Opposition, in a bizarre alliance with the Greens and the unions, is seeking to stay plans to lift the threshold for a permanent whole person impairment (WPI) to 31 per cent.
Opponents of the planned changes say they would lock most claimants suffering a psychological injury out of support; the government says it offers greater access to lump sum payments.
Appearing before the Legislative Council, shadow treasury spokesperson Damien Tudehop moved that the bill be referred to the Public Accountability and Works Committee for inquiry in August.
Instead, an amended version of the motion put forward by independent MLC Mark Latham was approved by the Council, which set that the committee would determine its own reporting date.
'It is incumbent upon the Treasurer to at least demonstrate … the manner in which this scheme is currently operating and why the savings, which have been identified for the scheme, are acting or potentially acting to target people who are the most vulnerable in terms of psychological injury which they have suffered,' Mr Tudehop said.
Mr Tudehope went on to add: 'There are other areas of the manner in which the scheme is being managed at the moment, which can produce savings. There are significant savings identified in the act, which in fact we will be wholeheartedly endorsing'.
During his address, Mr Tudehope said he was 'not here to hold up the process', but that the Opposition had not had enough time to properly assess the plan.
In response, Treasurer Daniel Moohley said delaying the bill by referring it to an inquiry would be an 'opportunity that we miss' to begin repairing the 'broken' system.
'The opportunity we will miss is to begin to provide for injured workers,' he said.
'Absent reform, a small business that has no claims rejected is facing the prospect of a 12 per cent increase next year, followed by a further 12 per cent, followed by a further 12 per cent.
'The bigger opportunity that we've been missing is to begin to build a proper culture of prevention when it comes to psychological injury.
'That is crucial to stopping people from getting injured in the first place and at the same time making sure that we have a workers compensation system that complements the task of returning people to their health and returning people to their work.'
In four weeks time, Mr Moohkey warned the system would 'fall back even further' and make reform harder, including the private sector which he said was suffering $5m losses per day.
He instead urged for the Opposition to 'make this decision today' and put their amendments up for debate, rather than referring the workers compensation bill to an inquiry.
Greens MLC Abigail Boyd supported the Opposition's motion, stating that the bill, if passed, 'could cause so much distress to people who are already at their most vulnerable that they may choose to end their lives.
'A bill that is literally about life and death.
'That's why we should never seek to pass a bill like this in these circumstances, with the secrecy, the deception, the blatant mistruths that we've been told over the last three months, and with the government having failed to make out the case for what they have decided to do.'
She urged Labor MLCs supporting the bill to consider whether it was 'this reform that has been never recommended in any of the multiple, multiple reports or inquiries into the workers compensation system, that has been sprung on you with very little warning.
'Are you personally satisfied that the only option, the only option is to implement these reforms? The most cruel and dangerous of all of the possibilities.'
She went on to add: 'I don't think any Labour member can honestly say that they thought two years ago they would now be sitting here trying to defend a bill that will kill workers.'
The proposed workers compensation reform has faced stiff opposition from the state's unions, as well as a parliamentary inquiry, and competing claims about urgency.
The state government says the reforms need to be passed before July 1, while the Opposition says premiums for the nominal insurer are already locked for next year.
Mr Moohkey previously indicated he would not authorise further payments to the Treasury Managed Fund, the government's self-insurer, following billions in cash injections.
The plan also seeks to address the state of the nominal insurer, the health of which has resulted in rising premiums for businesses and charities operating in the state,
Mr Moohkey said failure of the bill had already been factored into the state budget,