Latest news with #DanielMookhey
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
NSW workers' compensation reforms delayed as bill referred for second inquiry
The NSW Coalition has sided with unions to delay the Labor government's workers' compensation reforms over a measure that would have made it harder to claim long-term compensation for psychological injuries. The Opposition and the Greens teamed up in the state's upper house on Thursday to refer the Minns government's bill to a second parliamentary inquiry. The Public Accountability and Works Committee will now be required to table a report on the bill at a later date. During the debate in the upper house, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey argued that the "unnecessary" delay would cost the private sector at least $5 million a day. One measure of the bill, which proved to be the sticking point for the Coalition, was the proposal to double the Whole Person Impairment (WPI) threshold from 15 to 31 per cent. This would have made it significantly harder for workers to claim ongoing support for a psychological injury beyond two-and-a-half years. The unions opposed the proposition and found themselves an unlikely ally in the NSW Liberal Party leader Mark Speakman, who resisted calls from major business lobby groups to urgently pass the bill. Mr Speakman said the Coalition would have supported the bill if several proposed amendments were adopted, including maintaining the threshold at 15 per cent. "We think that is a drastic measure that will punish the most severely affected workers, so we don't want to see that threshold raised," he told ABC Radio Sydney. "We want to see premiums driven down, they are becoming unaffordable for small business, but we think there are fairer ways of doing it." According to the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, psychological injury claims increased by 64 per cent over four years, from 5,616 in 2019-20 to 9,195 in 2023-24. Mr Mookhey claimed that without the reforms, premiums paid by businesses would increase by 36 per cent over three years to 2028, costing businesses more than $1 billion a year. "The opportunity we will miss is to fundamentally begin repairing a system everyone acknowledges is broken," Mr Mookhey said during the debate in the upper house. "For the 340,000 businesses that pay into this scheme, the opportunity we will miss … is to give them certainty about what's going to happen to their most significant costs and significant causes of anxiety." During the debate, Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope acknowledged that "the treasurer and I seemed to have swapped friends". Earlier on Thursday, Premier Chris Minns said during Question Time that the Coalition was being "misled" about the possible impact of the measure. "The truth is the Coalition's amendments would gut the bill," Mr Minns said. The bill had cleared the lower house with some minor amendments on Monday night. Last month, the government softened parts of the bill after fierce backlash from unions and concerns raised by medical professionals and lawyers during an inquiry.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Setback for Minns government as controversial workers' compensation bill sent to inquiry
A controversial bill to curtail workers' compensation claims for psychological injuries incurred by New South Wales workers will be sent to a parliamentary inquiry, after cross benchers and the Coalition banded together to force the inquiry. The independent Mark Latham moved for a relatively swift inquiry, with the date of reporting to be set by the chair of the inquiry, once the scope of evidence is known. The move is a setback for the Minns Labor government, which released the workers' compensation bill a week ago, insisting it was extremely urgent and needed to be passed this week. The state treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, who opposed the inquiry, said NSW's compensation scheme was running a $5m deficit every day. The full impact of growth in claims for psychological injury by public sector workers will be evident on 24 June when the state budget is delivered. Mookhey said this week there had been a $2bn deterioration in the Treasury managed fund which pays for public servants' claims. He's also warned that premiums for business will need to rise by 36% in the next three years. 'No employers should have to worry about the sustainability of the scheme,' he said. 'If we delay further the task gets harder.' The government's bill would lift the threshold for whole of person impairment from 20% to 30%, limiting their compensation to payments to 2.5 years. It has been heavily criticised by the union movement and medical and legal experts who say that the threshold is too high, and will leave workers who are unable to function without the financial support they need. The opposition wants the threshold left as it is, but offered amendments to definitions of bullying and other aspects of the bill, which it said would deliver more modest savings. Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, who is chair of the public accounts committee, said the government had committed 'a complete breach of trust' by blurring the impact on various government accounts and failing to produce the modelling that would allow members to assess the impact of the scheme. 'I don't like being misled,' Boyd said. 'The treasurer has deliberately confused the nominal fund and the Treasury managed fund,' she said. She accused Mookhey of being driven by concerns over the state's AAA rating at the expense of injured workers. 'It is not melodramatic to talk about life and death.' Five people committed suicide after the 2012 changes that were later reversed, she said. 'These are the most cruel and dangerous of reforms. If you think as I do that this will cost lives, then I urge you to support an inquiry,' she said. The inquiry is expected to begin as soon as possible, with Mookhey indicating he wants to pass the bill in the budget sittings of parliament. The committee will meet next week, will be chaired by Boyd and include Latham, and Coalition MLCs Damien Tudehope, Sarah Mitchell. The government will nominate three members. The Treasurer has publicly indicated his willingness to cooperate.
The Age
a day ago
- Business
- The Age
Workers compensation legislation to face second inquiry after government loses first battle
The NSW Labor government's contentious workers compensation bill has been dealt a major blow and will be delayed indefinitely after Treasurer Daniel Mookhey failed to convince the Coalition and crossbenchers to back his reforms. To avoid an embarrassing loss in the upper house, the government did not oppose the Coalition's push to have a second inquiry into the bill, which will occur over at least two weeks and have broad powers to interrogate the data and modelling underpinning the proposed legislation. The proposed changes included increasing the Whole of Person Impairment (WPI) threshold to 31 per cent, limiting the capacity for people with serious psychological injury to receive long-term support or claim damages. Mookhey had warned the Coalition's amendments to the legislation would cost the state $1.9 billion. This will be the second time the legislation is considered by an inquiry, after a snap one-day hearing was held in mid-May. Some Labor backbenchers had circulated a draft letter imploring the premier to delay the introduction of the bill. Loading Opposition treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope acknowledged he and Mookhey seemed to 'have swapped friends' as he argued an inquiry was fundamental to understand the inherent risks with the reforms, a process he believed should have begun in October last year. Mookhey, who hoped the legislation would be debated and passed on Thursday, argued an inquiry would miss an opportunity to begin repairing the state's workers compensation system, providing certainty to injured workers and small businesses ahead of three successive years of 12 per cent cost rises in premiums. 'I understand as well the point that the shadow treasurer is making about the desire to familiarise himself further with data, but that comes at an expense, that is the opportunity cost we have to fix this system,' he said. 'I urge the house to do its job today.'
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Workers compensation legislation to face second inquiry after government loses first battle
The NSW Labor government's contentious workers compensation bill has been dealt a major blow and will be delayed indefinitely after Treasurer Daniel Mookhey failed to convince the Coalition and crossbenchers to back his reforms. To avoid an embarrassing loss in the upper house, the government did not oppose the Coalition's push to have a second inquiry into the bill, which will occur over at least two weeks and have broad powers to interrogate the data and modelling underpinning the proposed legislation. The proposed changes included increasing the Whole of Person Impairment (WPI) threshold to 31 per cent, limiting the capacity for people with serious psychological injury to receive long-term support or claim damages. Mookhey had warned the Coalition's amendments to the legislation would cost the state $1.9 billion. This will be the second time the legislation is considered by an inquiry, after a snap one-day hearing was held in mid-May. Some Labor backbenchers had circulated a draft letter imploring the premier to delay the introduction of the bill. Loading Opposition treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope acknowledged he and Mookhey seemed to 'have swapped friends' as he argued an inquiry was fundamental to understand the inherent risks with the reforms, a process he believed should have begun in October last year. Mookhey, who hoped the legislation would be debated and passed on Thursday, argued an inquiry would miss an opportunity to begin repairing the state's workers compensation system, providing certainty to injured workers and small businesses ahead of three successive years of 12 per cent cost rises in premiums. 'I understand as well the point that the shadow treasurer is making about the desire to familiarise himself further with data, but that comes at an expense, that is the opportunity cost we have to fix this system,' he said. 'I urge the house to do its job today.'
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Sky News host and NSW Treasurer exchange fiery barbs over changes to workers compensation as contentious bill causes standoff
Sky News host Laura Jayes has scolded NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey in a heated on-air exchange, as contentious reforms to workers' psychological compensation hits a major snag amid ballooning costs for small business. The NSW government's sweeping reforms to workers compensation laws have suffered a setback, with the opposition and crossbench stifling Premier Chris Minns' plans to clamp down on the surging cost of psychological injury claims. NSW Premier Chris Minns is seeking to overhaul the existing workers compensation system by considerably limiting the state's 4.5 million workers' ability to claim for psychological injury at work because of trauma and other factors. The government wants to raise the whole-person impairment (WPI) threshold from 20 to 30 per cent, of which is a medical scale used to measure the severity of injury sustained at a workplace. The proposed changes have incensed the Greens, crossbench, and opposition in addition to unions and the legal and medical professions, with experts outlining that an impairment as low as 15 per cent would mean an individual was unable to function independently in almost all domains of life. NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey urged the upper house to pass the legislation on Thursday in the strictest possible terms and reiterated that if the laws were not enacted businesses would face a 36 per cent increase in workers compensation premiums due to the sizeable number of claims. 'The reason why these reforms are urgent is because the system is failing injured workers right now. It's failing the 340,000 small businesses that are paying in it,' Mr Mookhey said. Yet he admitted that even if the changes to the WPI were made the move would not result in any immediate budget savings. "These changes, whether they go through this week or they go through in the budget week, won't impact the budget result,' Mr Mookhey said, conceding that the system was 'broken' and needed to be made more 'sustainable'. However, Jayes rebuffed the Treasurer's assertion that the changes would ensure the system would be made fairer for workers, stating 'you are trying to fix it by denying people with psychological injuries that they sustained at work from getting full and ongoing compensation'. Mookhey confessed that 'this is a controversial change here in New South Wales', with Jayes once again pressing the Treasurer if he accepted the bill would 'lock people out of the compensation that they deserve?' Mookhey responded with a blunt, 'no' and argued there are '88,000 people who use the workers' compensation system each year, of them 12,000 are psychological injury and within the 12,000, the number of workers that would be impacted came out to be roughly 900 if it was applied last year'. 'We've turned up with a reform package that's accepted that this is a broken system and in response to that we've seen both the Liberal Party choose to play politics with the Greens Party knowing full well that the consequence of that is to trap injured workers,' Mookhey said. Jayes blasted the Treasurer for playing 'politics', reiterating 'the Parliament works in the way that the opposition and the Greens can move amendments, they are not talking about abolishing this completely, they are only moving amendments'. The Coalition party room met on Tuesday and agreed to insist on a half-dozen amendments including removing the section raising the whole person impairment threshold, which is the underpinning element of the legislation. Mr Mookhey lashed his opposition counterparts for advocating higher costs for small businesses and delaying the bill ahead of the fast-approaching state budget. 'It's failing the 340,000 small businesses that are paying in it, those 340 thousand small businesses should know that the party that purports to defend their interests, are right now playing political games with the Greens Party at their expense''. The Coalition has indicated that if its amendments are not agreed to then it will send the bill to a further inquiry, whilst the Greens and crossbench have expressed serious reservations about the reforms. The Icare nominal insurer's workers' compensation scheme recorded a net loss of $1.88bn last financial year.
