19 June 2014 two years on - The NSW workers

19 June 2014 – Peter Primrose Page 1 TWO YEARS ON - THE NSW WORKERS COMPENSATION SCHEME SUMMARY: The Liberals/ Nationals 2012 amendments to the NSW Workers Compensation Scheme were harsh and unnecessary. 1 They manufactured a flimsy crisis based on a lie of ‘economic necessity’ to cost-shift the financial burden of workplace injury on to injured workers and their families. WorkCover’s PwC actuary has confirmed that the 2011 prediction of a $4 billion deficit was largely based on a temporary low-point in returns from yields as a result of the Global Financial Crisis. Even while praising its 2012 amendments, the Government acknowledges that the bulk of its ‘turn-around’ of the Scheme to its current surplus was not as a consequence of slashing benefits to workers, but rather massively increased returns as ‘a result of stronger investment yields.’ PwC has also confirmed that with the ending of the GFC:  Without any of the 2012 changes, the deficit was would have fallen to $2 billion in June 2014 and to $500 million in June 2018. It would have approached full funding by 2021. The Scheme that the Liberal’s “inherited” in 2011 was solvent.  With the 2012 changes, by 2019 WorkCover will hold 55% more in assets than it needs to meet its liabilities. This would amount to a surplus of around $5 billion. WorkCover premiums paid by employers have been cut by 17.5 per cent, but the Baird Government has not provided a single cent to injured workers struggling to survive after being injured at work. The 2012 changes were a major cost shifting exercise from the workers compensation scheme and employers,2 and on to injured workers, their families and the Federal Government through Medicare and the (ever harsher and more restricted) social security system. These unfair changes should be scrapped. LABOR’S POLICY ON WORKERS COMPENSATION: In Government, NSW Labor will:  scrap the changes to workers compensation introduced in 2012;  conduct a genuine review of the workers compensation scheme; 1 Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2012 (NSW) 2 Insurance companies essentially act as contractors (the scheme agents) to deliver claims management and legislative administration. The money is the schemes (WorkCover Authority).