Latest news with #MarkLatham
The Guardian
5 days 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.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
NSW Labor workers comp reform to be referred to inquiry despite pleas for urgency
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,
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Urgent warning issued to Australians about Anthony Albanese's election win - and how the country has changed forever: 'I fear our national decline is irreversible'
Mark Latham has delivered a scathing verdict on Labor's decisive election win, warning that Australia is facing 'long-term economic decline'. The former Labor leader and One Nation NSW MP, now a right-wing independent, took to social media in the wake of the federal election this month with a post titled, 'What this election means for Australia'. 'Australia is in the first stage of long-term economic decline,' Mr Latham wrote. 'Post Covid, there has been a sharp decline in the number of productive people and productive workplaces, and a sharp, seemingly permanent increase in the welfare and black economy. 'I would estimate that the proportion of genuinely productive Australians in their workplaces has fallen from 40 per cent to less than one-quarter in the space of just five years. The leaners now easily outnumber the lifters.' Mr Latham said a modern reliance on opinion polling and focus groups had led to a 'political culture of hand-outs - giveaways, all debt-funded'. 'Even the Liberal Party has joined in, forfeiting its reputation for fiscal responsibility, completing its transformation into a woke sinkhole, more closely resembling the American Democrats than the Howard/Costello era. 'This sadly miserable new economy and the new politics that goes with it has given Labor a natural electoral advantage.' He listed his reasons why Australia was 'in the middle of a perfect economic storm', including a new political hand-out culture and the 'post-Covid stupor and industrial-scale abuse of Work From Home'. Mr Latham also referred to the transition to renewables as 'economic self-harm' and said the country's ethos of strength and resilience had been replaced by a 'woke Alphabet world of victimology'. Mass immigration was destroying housing affordability and 80 per cent of new jobs were debt-funded from the public sector, he claimed. 'No nation on earth has so much available space, yet we have the world's highest housing prices. 'No nation on earth has so many available resources, yet once left in the ground, we have the world's highest power prices. The golden age of Hawke/Keating/Howard/Costello economics has ended.' Mr Latham's post received hundreds of supportive comments, with many lamenting that the golden age of Australia was finished. 'I fear for the future, not for me, but for all the young people growing up in a country devoid of commonsense and hope,' one said. 'Virtually a mirror image of the current UK decline,' said another. 'We are no longer the Lucky Country,' a third said. 'Thank goodness we grew up when we had strong leadership and we prospered in our manufacturing, farming industry, our exports and high living standards. A fair go and hard work was rewarded.' 'I fear we have passed the point of no return,' said another supporter. 'The voters will not accept a fiscal turn-around that reduces the over-generous hand outs they have been granted to secure votes.' Mr Latham's post comes after the Federal Court ruled in September he had defamed fellow independent MP Alex Greenwich with a homophobic tweet. The court awarded Mr Greenwich $140,000 in damages. It also ordered Mr Latham to pay his rival's legal costs on a party-party basis, which normally covers around 70 per cent of the fees incurred. Mr Greenwich's legal costs have been estimated to exceed $600,000, meaning the case may cost the former Labor leader more than half a million dollars. Mark Latham's full message to Australia BEFORE THE ELECTION: Australia is in the first stage of long-term economic decline. Post Covid, there has been a sharp decline in the number of productive people and productive workplaces, and a sharp, seemingly permanent increase in the welfare and black economy. I would estimate that the proportion of genuinely productive Australians in their workplaces has fallen from 40% to less than one-quarter in the space of just 5 years. The leaners now easily outnumber the lifters. Once measured in opinion polling and focus groups, this has produced a political culture of hand-outs – giveaways, all debt-funded, as we have seen in this Federal election campaign. Even the Liberal Party has joined in, forfeiting its reputation for fiscal responsibility, completing its transformation into a woke sinkhole, more closely resembling the American Democrats than the Howard/Costello era. This sadly miserable new economy and the new politics that goes with it has given Labor a natural electoral advantage. If you want big spending, debt funding and a hand-out dependency, underpinned by low productivity, soft working conditions, rorted government programs and the Ponzi scheme of Big Australian migration, you might as well vote for the people who truly believe in it, and have been masters in creating it. That's the ALP and Albanese. Australia is in the middle of a perfect economic storm: • the new political culture of a hand-out and welfare economy; • the post-Covid stupor and industrial-scale abuse of Work From Home; • the economic self-harm of an energy transition driving up power prices and harming our competitiveness while leaving global surface temperatures unchanged; • our national ethos of strength and resilience replaced by the woke Alphabet world of victimology; • mass immigration destroying housing affordability, as the over-regulated supply side can't keep up; • inexorable growth in that most horrendous new terminology: the care economy (child care, disability care and aged care), such that 80% of new jobs are debt-funded from the public sector; • the new national past time of rorting poorly-designed government programs: leading to a huge and growing black economy in tobacco, the NDIS, training programs and renewable energy scams; and • a political class totally disinterested in labour productivity and economic competitiveness. No nation on earth has so much available space, yet we have the world's highest housing prices. No nation on earth has so many available resources, yet once left in the ground, we have the world's highest power prices. The golden age of Hawke/Keating/Howard/Costello economics has ended. Like many Australians of my age, I tell my children how fortunate I feel to have seen our nation at its best in the 1990s, yet how maudlin and pessimistic I feel for their generation. Australian public policy used to be run by the creative minds of our national interest. Now it's in the hands of a self-serving, blinded elite who can't see past the next focus-group-generated giveaway. As the Anzacs might have said, waiting for the third charge at The Nek, 'we're stuffed, mate'. And nothing in this election campaign is helping. In fact, it confirms our worst fears in taking Australia backwards. Mediocrity in Canberra means the best of our country is now behind us. Albanese has spent an extra $190 billion in just 3 years, yet living standards have gone backwards by 10 percent. Any random bloke at the local pub could have done better with all that money. But is seems likely tomorrow that Australians will return Labor to office. I fear our national decline is irreversible. ELECTION UPDATE: The analysis above: That's the way the election result played out. Labor's natural electoral advantage gave it a landslide . There will be a lot of commentary about Dutton's mistakes, dumb Liberal tactics, Albanese cleverness etc. But the biggest thing is in how the country has changed. A huge turning point was Scott Morrison's Jobkeeper program during Covid: it taught Australians the government would pay them for staying at home. Ever since, the hunger for debt-funded government benefits and concessions has been insatiable. So too, the demand to stay home (Work From Home). This coincides with the way Australia has become a fragile service economy, with the loss of manufacturing and mining jobs. Productivity has collapsed, returning to 2016 levels. So we have more Australians demanding more government money but fewer Australians working productively to pay for it. The inevitable result is the trillion dollar debt in Canberra. Australia has changed rapidly, in a way that's right in Labor's hitting zone. Look at the CVs of the Labor MPs elected yesterday: a party now dominated by social workers, teachers, apparatchiks and public servants. They believe in unlimited debt-funded government handouts: exactly what the new Australian electorate is demanding. Combined with massive migration numbers bringing in more Labor voters (who look at our publicly funded handouts and benefits and think it's a picnic) the ALP has cobbled together a winning electoral coalition. Once you add to these 'leaners' the woke, the Alphabet mob and climate change fanatics, Labor starts well in front in electoral demographics. In the new Australia it has a natural winning advantage. The ALP could be renamed the WWM party: Woke Welfare Migrant. Yesterday Albanese didn't sharply lift the Labor primary vote. It rose 2% to 34.6% (goodness, I got 37.5% in losing to John Howard in 2004). His success came from driving down the Liberal-National primary vote to 32%. The uniquely Australian voting system also helps Labor, with Albo winning 60% of the seats from one-third of the votes. Labor's negative campaign won it for them. As voters have become more disengaged from party politics and election campaigns, TV ads have become more important in swaying voters. The ALP scare advertisements, saying that Dutton's $600 billion nuclear plan would cut everyone's benefits, were incredibly effective. Just as incredible, the Liberals made no attempt to rebut the Labor fear campaign. Voters are no longer rusted on to the major parties. Allegiances are now soft. Meaning that if the Leaners think they are about to lose something, they flood away from the party (supposedly) doing it.
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Howzat! Mark Latham, Big Tobacco and his love of a cricket freebie
Sometimes, we suspect the only thing keeping former Labor leader Mark Latham in the NSW upper house is the ability to say nasty things about his numerous enemies under the protection of parliamentary privilege. Unlike, say, Rosehill, where an alleged expletive-laden tirade against an Australian Turf Club executive saw the MP narrowly escape losing his membership, parliament is a safe space for Latham to say whatever he likes. But we reckon he loves the freebies. Latham, who after a bitter political divorce with Pauline Hanson now sits in the Legislative Council as an independent, is Macquarie Street's most prodigious recipient of free sporting tickets and corporate box seats from his many friends. Sometimes, in the instance of former Tennis pro Mark Philippoussis, whom Latham said took him to Wimbledon in 2023, those friends deny ever indulging Latham (Philippoussis said he never bought Latham tickets and that the pair weren't friends). But the gifts that show up with the regularity of London buses on Latham's parliamentary disclosures are always interesting. This week, documents tabled in parliament revealed that the MP received several tickets to the cricket courtesy of corporate nicotine giant British American Tobacco. We're not sure what's worse, taking handouts from big tobacco, or taking tickets from big tobacco for the Big Bash. To be fair, they also took him to the New Year's Test against India at the SCG. When Labor leader, Latham banned the party from accepting tobacco donations, one of many positions he's drifted away from in the 21 years since his bone-crushing handshake with John Howard outside an ABC studio ruined what little hopes he still had of being PM. Latham didn't return our calls, but Libertarian MP John Ruddick, who was also at the Sydney Test at a box filled with BAT executives did, telling CBD he was proud to have accepted the hospitality. The Libertarians have maintained positive relationships with big tobacco dating back to the days of Senator David Leyonhjelm, owing to their general anti-prohibitionist stance on various things that can kill you.
