Latest news with #Mookhey
Sky News AU
12 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey reignites GST war, slams WA deal as 'ridiculous' as federal government refuses changes
New South Wales Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has reignited the war over the controversial GST distribution, warning that the system unfairly benefits Western Australia. Mr Mookhey slammed the multi-billion-dollar deal which guarantees WA a minimum share of GST as 'ridiculous' and said NSW was paying the price. Speaking at a Business NSW pre-budget breakfast, Mr Mookhey revealed that NSW would receive its lowest share of GST revenue in 25 years in the 2025-26 budget. 'Yes, I'm still very sore about the $12.6 billion that was taken from New South Wales last year in GST,' Mr Mookhey said on Tuesday. 'When we give the budget in two weeks time, people will see that New South Wales will receive its lowest share of GST in the 25 years since it was introduced.' The NSW Treasurer accused WA of benefiting from a system which allowed it to deliver superior services while keeping state taxes low, at the expense of larger eastern states. 'There are now really two states—well, two and a bit really—that are propping up the federation when it comes to GST distributions,' he said. 'It's now us, it's now Queensland ... technically WA donates, but I wouldn't necessarily recognise it as a fair arrangement." Mr Mookhey said when he became NSW Treasurer, NSW was receiving 93 cents per dollar of GST raised compared to 96 cents for Victoria. Those figures had changed to 85 cents for NSW and $1.07 for Victoria. The remarks come amid deepening frustration from eastern states about the 2018 deal which guarantees WA at least 75 cents for every dollar of GST raised in the state. That guarantee—set to continue until at least 2029-30—was struck by the Morrison government and locked in under the Albanese government. 'Right now, it's ridiculous that when a place like Stanmore Park is classified as a major city, we lose GST,' Mr Mookhey said. 'It was a surprise for them to wake up in the morning and find out that they're bigger than Darwin for the purpose of GST allocation. It's ridiculous.' Despite the growing backlash, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reaffirmed his commitment to the existing WA GST deal. 'We support the position on WA that I took to the election, that I took the 2022 election, and that we're enshrined at the National Cabinet,' Mr Albanese said last Tuesday. The deal, originally set to expire in 2026-27, was recently extended as part of a broader funding agreement on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Independent economist Saul Eslake has been scathing in his criticism of the GST carve-up, describing it as the 'worst public policy decision of the 21st century'. 'The 'WA GST deal' which Albanese champions means that residents of Australia's richest state, WA, will get better public services whilst paying lower state taxes,' he said. 'It is giving WA $7 billion in 2025-26, and at least $8 billion per annum in 2026-27 through 2029-30.' Another major concern has been the cost of the deal blowing out from $9 billion over eight years to almost $60 billion over 11 years. 'That's the biggest blow-out in the cost of any single policy decision, ever, with the possible exception of the NDIS, which was at least for a noble purpose,' Mr Eslake said. He also criticised both major parties for entrenching the deal, saying bipartisan support was needed to unwind it and restore fairness to the system. Any hope of bipartisan change was quashed last week when the Coalition's economic team confirmed it would not propose any changes to the current GST formula. 'The Coalition will not be proposing changes to the current GST settings with respect to Western Australia,' Shadow treasurer Ted O'Brien and shadow finance minister James Paterson said in a joint statement to Sky News.
The Age
5 days 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
5 days 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
5 days 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.
The Age
6 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Premier's office forced to quell backbench rebellion on workers' compensation
More than a dozen Labor backbenchers were preparing to send a signed letter to Premier Chris Minns urging him to delay the introduction of the contentious workers' compensation reform bill, but the correspondence was kiboshed at the eleventh hour after the premier's office warned MPs against signing it. The disquiet within the Labor caucus about Treasurer Daniel Mookhey's plans to curtail access to the state's workers' compensation scheme came as the government faced an uphill battle in progressing the legislation through a hostile upper house on Thursday. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman confirmed on Tuesday that the Coalition would oppose Mookhey's compensation bill unless a series of amendments were accepted by the government. This included cutting a proposed new threshold for those with serious psychological injury to receive long-term support or claim damages. The increase of the Whole Person Impairment (WPI) has been widely panned by the unions, psychiatrists and the Greens as being unnecessarily severe. A parliamentary hearing last month heard that 27 of the hundreds of employees with a workplace psychological injury each year would be eligible to claim long-term benefits under the proposed threshold. A Liberal source unauthorised to speak publicly about internal deliberations said besides the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers members and Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham, the crossbench in the Legislative Council appeared largely sympathetic to the Coalition's position, leaving the likelihood the legislation would be pushed to a parliamentary inquiry. Five Labor MPs speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive party matters said concerns about elements of the draft bill, the rushed legislative process and lack of detail provided to the caucus resulted in the circulation of a draft letter to Minns and Mookhey, calling for the introduction of the bill to be delayed. One of the MPs described the letter as being dead on arrival because upper house MP Anthony D'Adam was perceived as being responsible for the correspondence, saying some backbenchers were wary of being associated with the outspoken MP.
