Latest news with #workerscompensation
SBS Australia
6 hours ago
- Business
- SBS Australia
SBS News in Filipino, Friday 6 June 2025
A new report suggests care burnout is costing Australians their health, careers, and up to $18,000 a year. The New South Wales opposition has established an inquiry to probe controversial changes to the state's workers compensation scheme. Thousands of Australian videos featuring misinformation have been removed from online platforms as tech giants turn to AI tools to identify issues. SBS Filipino 06/06/2025 07:35 📢 Where to Catch SBS Filipino
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.
News.com.au
a day 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,
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Chris Minns warns of $2bn budget hole if bill curtailing psychological injury claims fails
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has warned a failure to pass his controversial workers compensation legislation would blow a $2bn hole in the state budget as Labor seeks to woo a coalition of conservative crossbenchers to pass the bill. In parliament, the premier said if the changes to curtail psychological injury claims did not go through, an additional $2bn would be required from NSW taxpayers to fund the public service portion of the scheme. He also warned that businesses would see premiums rise by 36% over three years to fund the scheme for the private sector. Sources have told Guardian Australia that there was intensive lobbying of upper house MPs from the Shooters and Fishers party and other right-leaning MPs, including former One Nation MPs Mark Latham and Rod Roberts, Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham and Libertarian MP John Ruddick. The opposition will move on Thursday to send the complex bill to an inquiry. Opposition leader Mark Speakman described it as 'unconscionable' and 'cruel'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The opposition wants the status quo of 15% impairment to qualify for compensation, instead of the 30% that the government is proposing. He said the opposition had offered amendments that would yield some savings, such as tightening definitions of psychological injury due to bullying, or 'unworkable' claims due to 'excessive work demands', but the Coalition would not budge on the impairment threshold. A 15% impairment means a person struggles with daily tasks and requires reminders about their hygiene needs. Experts have said that a 30% impairment was so high that it would make it virtually impossible for people to ever claim for psychological injury. The high-stakes game will play out on Thursday. The shadow treasurer, Damien Tudehope, warned that the government was seeking to cajole the crossbench with offerings in other policy areas that were important to them. The public had strong views about the ethics of this approach, he said. Two days before the government released its workers compensation legislation, Minns surprised many by indicating support for a bounty scheme proposed by the Shooters party in its conservation hunting bill to control feral animals. The bill would create a new conservation hunting authority and proposes a raft of changes, including enshrining a 'right to hunt' and recognition of hunting as a conservation management tool. Minns has previously denied there was any deal with the Shooters for support of other legislation. Conservation groups and scientists have condemned the hunting proposal as ineffective and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion As debate on the bill began in the upper house on Wednesday, the scientist-led Biodiversity Council wrote to MPs warning that the legislation, if passed in its current form, would 'undermine invasive species management across the state, leading to poorer outcomes for the environment and agriculture'. Conservationists are concerned the bill will become a vehicle for promoting the interests of recreational hunting and management of invasive species as game rather than driving down feral animal numbers with control programs. The Invasive Species Council and other groups have also expressed concern that the proposed authority bears similarities to the defunct Game Council, which was abolished in 2013, and that hunting interests would dominate the authority's proposed voting structure. 'Recreational hunting is not conservation. It rarely delivers environmental benefits, and in many cases actively obstructs professional control programs,' the council's chief executive, Jack Gough, said. There also appear to be moves afoot to provide an exception for motorists who test positive when using medical marijuana, a policy that both Buckingham and the Greens have pushed. Unions, legal and medical experts have strongly criticised the government's attempts to curtail claims for psychological injury, warning that a 30% threshold would make it virtually impossible for people to make claims. They have urged the government to first focus on prevention and educating employers about handling psychosocial injuries, rather than cutting off compensation. The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Morey, said the result would be simply to cost shift on to the welfare and health systems. Compensation for injured public servants comes out of the Treasury Managed Fund (TMF), which is already under enormous pressure due to natural disaster funding in the last year. The full extent of the fund's deterioration will be revealed in the budget on 24 June.
