{"id":33013,"date":"2025-06-04T08:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33013"},"modified":"2025-06-04T08:30:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:30:23","slug":"workers-and-business-deserve-better-than-a-rush-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/workers-and-business-deserve-better-than-a-rush-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Workers and business deserve better than a rush job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The NSW Opposition will support sensible reforms to the workers compensation scheme&nbsp;but Labor needs to agree to smart, fair amendments that protect small business, working families and people with genuine psychological injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, dropped into Parliament just last week, is being rushed through by the Minns Labor Government under the false claim it must be passed by 1 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, premiums for the 2025\u201326 financial year are already locked in at an 8% increase, and the next premium filing isn\u2019t due until March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said we support reform, but we won\u2019t support a system that kicks severely injured people off support at 2.5 years with no justification or shifts public costs onto small business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese are serious changes, and they deserve serious scrutiny. We\u2019re offering alternative amendments to make the scheme fair, sustainable, and focused on the people it\u2019s meant to serve,\u201d Mr Speakman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NSW Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders said in the regions, we see what pressure does to frontline workers, small business owners and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe last thing they need is a government making it harder to get help or asking them to pay for problems in Macquarie Street. These reforms need to be realistic and that\u2019s what we\u2019re pushing Labor to deliver,\u201d Mr Saunders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope said the numbers don\u2019t stack up. There\u2019s no modelling showing how the harshest parts of this Bill save money\u2014just spin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe back responsible cost savings, but not at the expense of the people who hold up our economy,\u201d Mr Tudehope said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Opposition will move amendments to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scrap the proposed 31% impairment threshold for psychological injury.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make savings instead by tightening bullying claims and removing vague or unworkable claim triggers like \u201cexcessive work demands\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep independent assessments with the Personal Injury Commission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Retain Parliament\u2019s oversight of how injuries are assessed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stop private business from subsidising public sector disputes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If there is no satisfactory outcome of these amendments, the Opposition will seek to refer the Bill to an upper house inquiry for proper scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers deserve dignity. Businesses deserve fairness. The public deserves better than a rush job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NSW Opposition will support sensible reforms to the workers compensation scheme&nbsp;but Labor needs to agree to smart, fair amendments that protect small business, working families and people with genuine psychological injuries. The Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, dropped into Parliament just last week, is being rushed through by the Minns Labor Government under &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/workers-and-business-deserve-better-than-a-rush-job\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Workers and business deserve better than a rush job&#8221;<\/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-33013","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\/33013","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=33013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33014,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33013\/revisions\/33014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}