The Minns Labor Government has today released an Exposure Draft for a Bill as part of its ongoing consultation to protect the workers compensation system into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has referred the Exposure Draft to a parliamentary inquiry to further examine and seek feedback on reform options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rounds of formal consultation began in March and an Exposure Draft\u2019s release marks the next step in that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government is committed to modernising the workers compensation system to ensure it is sustainable for future generations to rely on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reform proposals recognise that workplace health and safety and workers compensation laws are failing to both prevent psychological injuries and to treat those with psychological injuries quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the current system, only 50 per cent of workers with a psychological injury are returning to work within a year. The rate is 95 per cent for workers with a physical injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the system currently spends seven times more on keeping an injured worker away from the workplace than it spends on getting them healthy and back on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NSW must have workplace health and safety laws, and a workers compensation system, that put prevention ahead of compensation as a response to psychological safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The status quo is failing workers and failing employers, who face premiums soaring by a forecast 36 per cent over the next three years if nothing is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Government will not be adopting a final position on workers compensation reform until the community has had a chance to have its say. This Exposure Draft is intended to provide a starting point for the next phase of conversations and to highlight the scale of the challenges the scheme is facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Standing Committee on Law and Justice in the Legislative Council will hold the inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must ensure that NSW has a workers compensation system for future generations to rely upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe status quo is failing workers and it\u2019s failing businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI encourage people to read the Exposure Draft for themselves and examine proposals to protect this system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister for Industrial Relations Sophie Cotsis said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Minns Labor Government is committed to strengthening a culture of prevention, early intervention, and effective return to work through a series of reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese include major reforms to SafeWork NSW, such as expanding the psychosocial inspectorate, and industrial relations reforms that establish a ‘stop bullying’ jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAdditionally, we have amended the iCare Act to include a principal objective focused on promoting early and appropriate treatment and care for injury and illness. This aims to optimise recovery, support return to work and daily activities, and ensure a sustainable compensation system.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe current system was primarily designed to support people who suffered a physical injury at work; it doesn\u2019t do enough to help people experiencing psychological injury to recover and return to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We welcome feedback on these proposals aimed at modernising the system and supporting people with serious injury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Minns Labor Government has today released an Exposure Draft for a Bill as part of its ongoing consultation to protect the workers compensation system into the future. NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has referred the Exposure Draft to a parliamentary inquiry to further examine and seek feedback on reform options. Rounds of formal consultation began … Continue reading “Workers Compensation Exposure Draft released”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32643,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642\/revisions\/32643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}