Victorian government’s WorkCover legislation struggling to garner parliament support

The Allan government only has three days to pass its controversial WorkCover legislation, with businesses facing hefty premiums if it can’t garner urgent support for its proposed changes.

Victorian businesses will pay hefty premiums if the Allan government fails to pass its contentious WorkCover legislation this week.

Premier Jacinta Allan and WorkSafe Minister Danny Pearson, on Tuesday, conceded that premiums will “absolutely” go up by between 2.4 per cent and 2.57 per cent.

The government is struggling to garner support for its proposed changes and has just three days to win enough votes for it to pass the upper house before parliament wraps up for the year.

The Coalition and the Greens have so far refused to support the Bill, leaving the government reliant on six crossbenchers to pass the legislation.

The opposition has instead called for a parliamentary inquiry to probe the WorkCover crisis.

Ms Allan said the government had consulted for most of the year with business, unions and members of parliament.

“Let’s be clear, it’s the Liberal Party and the leader of the opposition who are blocking sensible reforms to a WorkCover system that is fundamentally broken,” she said.

“We know premiums will have to go up if these laws don’t pass.

WorkSafe Minister Danny Pearson said WorkCover premiums would go up unless the bill was passed. Picture: Ian Currie

“It’s time to pass this Bill to provide workers with the certainty they deserve.

“Let’s think about businesses too – let’s not have this issue hanging over their head as we go into the Christmas period.”

Mr Pearson on Tuesday took aim at opposition leader John Pesutto, accusing him of “playing games”

He called on Mr Pesutto to step up and “show real leadership”, saying the opposition had failed to take up four offers to discuss amendments.

“There is a real risk that the Bill won’t pass because of what you’re doing,” he said.

“I made the offer to the opposition then that I’d meet with them every single day to consider any amendments to put forward in order to pass the Bill.

“And crickets from the opposition, like crickets.”

Mr Pearson said the Liberals silence was “unacceptable”.

“It’s not fair,” he said.

But Mr Pesutto fired back, calling Mr Pearson “one of the most incompetent ministers we’ve seen in many years”. and assuring Victorians the inquiry would wrap up before the new premium year begins.

“Danny Pearson in parliament two weeks ago, actually said that Work Cover under his management and oversight is on the brink of collapse.”

The opposition leader said Mr Pearson wasn’t prepared to guarantee that premiums would be reduced if the Bill did pass.

“He couldn’t even offer a simple guarantee to Victorian households and employers that premiums will come down or at least not go up,” he said.

Opposition leader John Pesutto has been accused of playing games. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“Because he knows that if this Bill passes, it’s half baked, it doesn’t deal with all of the things you need to fix.”

Mr Pesutto said the legislation needed to tackle return to work arrangements and to include better oversight provisions of the scheme’s management to deal with scrutiny and accountability.

He said an upper house inquiry would allow parliament to bring in experts to address these issues.

“No disrespect to Danny Pearson and Jacinta Allan but they don’t know anything about WorkCover and it shows,” he said.

“This is all doable if the government just stops being stubborn about it and accepts that in the upper house there is a will to get experts who can help guide the process.”

Mr Pesutto said he was “absolutely confident” that the inquiry would be able to deliver “short and sharp reports early in the new year”.

“It can be in place by the time that the new premium year kicks in for employers.”

Victorian businesses will pay hefty premiums if the Allan Government fails to pass its contentious WorkCover legislation this week. Picture: Alan Barber

Mr Pearson later said an upper house inquiry would create unnecessary delay, noting the reforms could take more than four months to pass if the probe goes ahead.

“Goodness knows when that’s going to report back by then it’s gonna go back towards the Legislative Council for consideration,” he said.

“It might pass, it might not pass. It might be amended. It might not be amended.”

Despite concerns from the Greens about the reforms limiting compensation for those with mental health injuries, Mr Pearson said the change was key to saving the scheme.

“What we see is that the mental health injuries are really driving the deterioration in the scheme,” he said.

“So 1986, the first year operation of the scheme, two per cent were mental health injuries and they would have been, I would imagine yeah probably PTSD.

“What we’re seeing now is that around 16 or 17 per cent of claims have been mental health injuries and they represent 50 per cent of the scheme’s costs.”

“You fundamentally won’t change the weaknesses that are driving the deterioration.”