NSW Premier: Workers comp costs to surge after reform bill blocked
After months of warnings and an overnight parliamentary battle, NSW businesses must now shoulder what politicians couldn’t fix – a 36 per cent rise in workers' comp costs.
Businesses have been warned to prepare for a steep rise in workers’ compensation premiums, with NSW Premier Chris Minns saying efforts to reform the sector would be halted after a parliamentary defeat.
It came as opposition Treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope attacked the state’s peak industry body, Business NSW, accusing CEO Daniel Hunter of being a “quasi-spokesman” for Treasurer Daniel Mookhey.
Mr Tudehope, who led a successful effort to shut down Labor’s bid to double the scheme’s “whole person impairment” level to 31 per cent, said the result was a “victory for seriously injured workers”.
Increasing the WPI, which measures how much function an injured person has, was key to Labor’s bid to make the scheme financially sustainable.
It follows months of government warnings the ballooning cost of the system would force workers’ compensation premiums for businesses to rise by up to 36 per cent.
Mr Minns on Friday blamed the Coalition for heaping further pressure on businesses.
“At the moment – when they’ve emerged through lockdowns, Covid, inflation, high interest rates, real pressure on family budgets – we’re now subjecting them to massive increases for workers’ comp premiums in NSW,” he said.
“It could have been avoided. It should have been avoided. It’s been denied by the so-called party of small business.”
The Premier appeared to rule out any further attempts to pass the reforms in the last sitting weeks of the year.
“There is a deadlock and, unfortunately, as it stands today, businesses can expect to see massive premium increases as a result of the Liberal Party and the National Party,” he said.
“It’s over. They’ve made a decision. You can expect the premiums to go up.”
Upper House MPs sat until 5am on Friday working through amendments, which included a package moved by Mr Tudehope and independent MP Mark Latham that would have raised the threshold for sexual harassment claims at work, which Labor successfully defeated.
Mr Tudehope said he would “stand with (injured workers)” even if “there is some impact on the Coalition’s popularity”.
He attacked business peak bodies such as Business NSW, that have strongly supported Labor’s reforms over concerns of the impact of premium hikes.
“I think we can be proud that we did not give into the pressure from those organisations in respect of this immoral legislation,” he said. Mr Tudehope accused Mr Hunter of being a “quasi-spokesman” for Mr Mookhey, who led the government reform efforts.
Mr Hunter urged MPs to attempt to pass the reforms again before the end of the year, saying “amid the cost of insurance, energy and the significant tax burden on business, a big increase in premiums is the last thing they need”.
“Businesses cannot go into Christmas with the threat of a 36 per cent increase in workers’ compensation premiums hanging over their heads,” Mr Hunter said.
“On the behalf of the 50,000 NSW businesses we represent – many of them small family businesses – we are again calling on parliamentarians to reform the system within the next seven days before parliament closes for the year.” The success of Labor’s reforms hinged on independent Taylor Martin, who withdrew his support in parliament on Thursday night, saying he had “not heard a single convincing argument today or another time” about raising the bar for injured workers’ access to the scheme.
Mr Martin, in withdrawing his support for the reforms, said he would “not be the patsy for this government”.
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