Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Bills

Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ben Carroll:

That this bill be now read a second time.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (18:01): I rise to make a contribution on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025. There have been a number of speakers that have provided contributions on this bill, and I think it is fair to say that the importance of a scheme that protects workers is fundamental. It is key to any workplace, and the WorkCover scheme that we must provide needs to be one that is robust, provides support for the workers and, importantly, provides the opportunity to get workers back to work as quickly as possible to ensure that they can continue the contributions that they make to work but also deal with some of the mental health and the stress associated with the injury that has occurred.

It would be unbelievable if we had a situation where we did not have these kinds of injuries, but we do have them and they continue to happen. We need to ensure that our workplaces are safe, but when injuries do happen, we need to ensure that we have a scheme that works. We have known for many, many years that the WorkCover scheme in Victoria is broken. And we have heard that from the previous Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, the member for Essendon, who has said that the WorkCover scheme has been broken in Victoria. He unfortunately laid it fairly and squarely at the feet of the government, because this government has been in power for 10 years and it has presided over a WorkCover scheme that fundamentally has been broken. We have seen that with two Ombudsman reports – an Ombudsman report in 2016 and another one in 2019 – that talk about how broken the system is and what needs to be done to fix it.

When you have situations where the provider has to go into administration because they cannot run the scheme properly even though in many instances it is a program, or it should be a program, getting money in and getting money out – it should be a program that fundamentally should work but just has not. This government has had to prop up WorkCover a number of times to the total amount of $1.3 billion just to keep it afloat. We saw that in the 2022–23 year, with $300 million to WorkCover just to ensure it could keep its head above water; in 2021–22, $450 million; and in 2020–21, $550 million, a total of $1.3 billion. Aside from all of that, it still has not managed to be able to do what is intended. We have seen – it is not just about the money and not just about the payouts – the return-to-work figure reduce each and every year, and that to me says it is a failed system.

It is a system that has not been able to work economically but also has not been able to achieve its targets. We see that in each and every year. In 2016–17 we had an 80.2 per cent return to work for those who had a physical injury; the year after, 2018–19, 77 per cent; 2021–22, 74 per cent; 2022–23, 73 per cent; and in 2023–24, only a slight increase, at 75 per cent, but down from 80 per cent back in 2016. So we are getting less people back to work within a six-month period. That is physical injury. When it comes to a mental health injury, we have seen in 2021–22, 45 per cent; 2022–23 and 2023–24, both at 42 per cent. That has also reduced over six months for getting people back to work.

What does that mean? It means a number of things. In an economic crisis where you have difficulty in being able to manage the books and ultimately a system that has not been managed properly by the government and that is fundamentally flawed, taxpayers end up topping it up. The money that I was talking about, which is $1.3 billion, does not magically appear. The $1.3 billion comes from the taxpayer. That has topped up this scheme. Now, not only has it been topped up, but that means that in order to ultimately have the scheme run, someone has got to pay. We know that the biggest employer of workers is small business, and it is small business that pays. This is where this system has been absolutely flawed, because we have seen an increase in many people’s premiums on what they were meant to be. Although 40 per cent is huge, we have seen situations where premiums have gone up 50 per cent, and in some cases 300 or 400 per cent. I do not know how anyone could sustain that kind of increase in premiums. It is, quite frankly, something that nobody can sustain, and small businesses have not been able to sustain it.

Many small businesses have written to us, including into my electorate office in Caulfield, just saying that those premium increases are just not sustainable. That is one of the issues. With parts of this hopefully we will see a change, but unfortunately this is not something that we have seen. It is really, really important, for that matter, when looking at this bill today, as the member for Evelyn has said, that we start to look at freezing some of these charges and some of these rates. Because as they escalate to the volumes that they will do in terms of any insurance policy, it means that the small businesses are limited in how they can pass that on. They cannot in many instances just charge customers more. They cannot employ less, because they have still got to do what they have got to do. So ultimately they go out of business because their revenue does not meet the costs, and WorkCover premiums are a big part of cost – employment and employment costs are probably the largest for most businesses in terms of how they run. So if their employment and employment costs, be it WorkCover, are prohibitive for them to be able to ultimately make ends meet, they do not survive. One of the key things in getting small business back on track is to ensure that we look at a freeze on some of these premiums to get this system working again like it used to prior to the 10 years that the Labor government has been in power.

If I could just spend the last few minutes talking about some of the other sectors that also are covered by WorkCover, and particularly around Victoria Police and our emergency services. We know, particularly in an overworked workforce and in a very stressed workforce, there are a lot of issues around mental health. Police see a lot of things that many of us would really struggle with, to be quite frank. In many instances that ends with issues around PTSD and many of those people not being able to continue in the job. Just as an example of that, I had a constituent write to me recently, only last month actually, saying:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

I’m 40-year-old and beyond my own belief have just been PTSD pensioned out of Victoria Police after 14 years of service, but the outcome was totally preventable. If only our WorkCover system had the tools for mental health repatriation, which sadly it does not. Victoria Police currently has over 700 members off work –

700 members–

specifically around mental health WorkCover. This equates to almost 5 per cent of Victoria Police’s operational workforce and does not include physical injuries, which have been excluded from this statement.

And it is huge.

My statement is this: The current system where Victoria Police is insured for WorkCover by Gallagher Basset is a failed system, in which Victoria Police is actually paying for its members to receive further harm, under the purview of an insurance company that has no facilities in accordance with the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act, to do anything tangible to repatriate police members that have injuries of the mind.

This person is desperately calling for help so they can get back to work, which is not what the insurer can do, and this has been the flaw in the system.

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

… it is even worse than this, because when you enter Workcover insured … Victoria Police hands over all your management to an insurance company, but unfortunately you get no help when the insurance company manages it. The current system of Victoria Police is perpetuated in the vicinity of $250 million per annum and increasing massively each year, so instead of paying to prevent further injuries it is causing more problems.

This is somebody that is calling out for help, and they are one of many Victoria Police members that are doing the same. Seven hundred police are 700 too many police that are off work because of stress and because of mental health and a failed WorkCover system, and that is why we have got to fix it and get this right.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (18:11): I too rise to speak on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025. The aim of this bill is to deliver on key recommendations from the Rozen review on how WorkSafe Victoria manages complex compensation claims. Over the past six-odd years that I have been here in this place I have spoken to many, many locals who have been on WorkCover and had accidents at work. Some of them were quite serious and some of them were not so serious and they were able to go back to work after a period of time. But it is really great to have the bill here in this place this week because we do need to do things to manage the complex compensation claims that we know too many Victorians are, sadly, being covered by.

This review was conducted on the recommendation of the Victorian Ombudsman back in 2019, and in turn this review made 22 recommendations for reform, of which 19 were accepted in full, including five that require legislative change. That is what is covered in this bill here today. That is what we are talking about before the house this evening. In addition to this there was a separate review that looked at the adequacy of compensation and support arrangements for families impacted by workplace-related deaths. This review, importantly, made 10 recommendations, of which the government has accepted eight. These recommendations also form part of this bill.

We on this side of the house believe that WorkSafe Victoria and our WorkCover system should work for the Victorians that need it. Nobody ever plans to get injured at work, and when they do get seriously injured on the job it is absolutely critical that these workers get the support they need to recover and, more importantly, to return to work. When you have the worst happen and you lose a loved one in a workplace accident, you should be entitled to the support you and your family need, including grief entitlements, child pensions, counselling and other supports. The WorkCover scheme is a proud Labor accomplishment. It is something that we are really, really proud of and that we on this side of the chamber accept needs constant improvement and modernisation to best deliver support to injured workers. I have said time and time again here in this place that evidence of being a really good government – a long-term Labor government – is that we are always seeking ways to improve, reform and modernise policy and legislation here in this state. We must constantly be looking at how to do things better, and this bill before the house and these reviews are evidence of that.

What we do know is that sometimes the experiences that people have in navigating and engaging with the WorkCover system, including interacting with WorkSafe agents, are more challenging than the injuries they sustained that led them to the system in the first place. It is a really vicious cycle when you are in a situation of trying to manage claims and in some cases stop people from accessing the scheme and WorkSafe and its agents end up causing more harm to the claimant, which leaves them off work longer. Nobody wants to see that happen, and that is something that we must ensure does not happen. It needs to be stamped out.

These workers have the right to have their claims assessed, triaged and managed appropriately and in a timely manner. What we know, thanks to the Rozen report, is that this issue has been systemic in WorkSafe for years, and that is why our government went ahead and commissioned the report. What we also know is that since this report was published WorkSafe has already taken positive steps to address some of these issues in their organisation. In 2021 they established the claims and recovery support team, who specialise in directly managing long-term injured workers’ claims, based on a recommendation to establish a complex claims unit within WorkSafe itself. In fact this team, it is really good to know, was expanded a year later to manage even more complex work claims.

We have also seen a recovery model office be piloted by WorkSafe, which looked at using sophisticated data and claims management technologies to identify workers with complex needs so that they can be allocated to receive higher and more tailored levels of support. Like I said earlier, most people really want to return to work, but they need to be well to do so and fit to be able to be in the workplace and do the type of work they were previously doing. There is always more to do and laws that need to be changed to give effect to this change, and that is exactly what this bill is all about.

The way we do this is by amending the objectives of the acts that govern WorkSafe to place a person-centred approach at the heart of delivering services. What this will do is help guide WorkSafe employees and agents when administering the WorkCover scheme and place the people who the system is there for – injured workers and their families – at the forefront of the claims process. It means that agents who act outside of this framework and actively work to impede claims from being approved and compound the injury suffered by the claimant will be in direct violation of these objectives.

Workers deserve to be treated fairly. They deserve to have their claims taken seriously and to have their claims processed. Whether that results in approvals or rejections from the WorkCover scheme, this should happen without shame, without frustration and without humiliation. That is why this bill also allows the minister – who in this case is the Deputy Premier – to create and establish a Code of Claimants’ Rights. This was another key recommendation from the report and will make it very clear for both WorkCover claimants and WorkSafe agents what their rights and responsibilities are under this scheme. Most importantly, these rights will be extended to all persons who have entitlements under the act, including dependants of deceased workers and their families. But even better, the bill is going to extend the maximum duration for provisional payments to a worker’s dependent partner from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, giving them more support while their claims are being assessed. The bill also provides for an increase in the pension paid to dependent children, applied retrospectively for up to five years prior to commencement.

These are all really positive amendments, and I know they will make an absolute world of difference for the families who rely on this scheme. At the end of the day, behind every worker there is a family – there are dependants, there are children, there are partners. No-one who has lost a family member at work or has lost a spouse or a parent should ever have to fight against WorkSafe to get the support that is rightfully theirs, and that is something folks here in this place should remind themselves of time and time again.

Another really important part of this bill relates to our government’s new return-to-work program. The goal of our WorkCover scheme is to support workers in recovering from their injuries and also support them in returning safely to the workplace. We know that the longer a person is away from work, the less likely they are to ever return, and that is especially the case for older workers who may find themselves on WorkCover basically until they reach retirement age. Everyone deserves the dignity and the fulfilment of work, and these changes will ensure that injured workers are better supported in getting back into the workplace.

Labor built our WorkCover scheme. Labor is committed to ensuring that it works best for everyone, for every party. Whether you are an injured worker or a family member of someone who has died at work, you should be able to access the scheme and have your claim assessed fairly without having the trauma and injury compounded by the claims process or by WorkSafe and its agents. We commissioned the Rozen report to identify what we need to do to improve the system, and this bill before the house this evening makes good on those recommendations. We are also ensuring, on the other end, that Return to Work Victoria can be set up and that their employers and workplaces have the required training and the skills needed to support their employees to return to work safely. That is how the scheme should work, and that is why we are making it happen. That is what this bill is about.

The contributions on this side of the house have been tremendous about the importance of providing these rights and these entitlements to injured workers and their families. Too many times – and we still see it – folks are injured at work, and some of them do, sadly, pass away. It truly is a tragedy. We know that every workplace accident is absolutely preventable and should have never happened in the first place. It is so important that this bill is before the house this week. It is so important to make these reforms and do the right thing and give workers the dignity that they deserve, and that is exactly why I commend it to the house.

Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (18:21): I rise to make a contribution on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025. The bill seeks to make a number of amendments to the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013, Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and Accident Compensation Act 1985. Largely the amendments in the bill seek to improve the experiences of injured workers and other claimants during their time on the WorkCover scheme and to improve the existing support provided to families and dependants of deceased workers. The bill makes amendments to the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 and the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 to require that the Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee and the WorkCover Advisory Committee consist of persons who have been affected, either directly or indirectly, by incidents that have occurred at a workplace involving death, serious injury or serious illness.

Everyone deserves to have a safe workplace and to return home after a hard day’s work. We have heard quite a lot of stories in the chamber today, and it is so important that we continue to do all that we can to make work a safe space and put provisions in place so that they are supported if something was to go wrong. We do have some concerns with this bill. As we know, WorkSafe has been a broken system and workplaces have struggled with the costs associated, which I will speak a bit more to in my contribution.

It was pleasing to hear the minister in his contribution this morning admit to the failings of WorkSafe in the past. It has taken a long time to get to this stage, and I am hoping that we can work with this government on this important bill and that the sensible reasoned amendment put forward by the member for Evelyn are supported. On this side of the house we do support WorkSafe improvements and financial and counselling support to family members who are impacted by the work-related death of a loved one or someone that has been injured. We also support businesses who are trying to support their workers. When an accident occurs, it can have an immediate and devastating impact on the lives of many.

When I received this bill I straightaway thought of a very close friend of mine, Katrina Mooney, who lost her son in a tragic workplace accident back in 1997. Adam Mooney was only 25 years old when he died and Katrina’s only child. Katrina was out the front of Adam’s workplace waiting to pick him up for lunch. She was taken into an office onsite and told of the tragic fatal accident – just the most heart-wrenching, tragic circumstances of a life lost way too young. Katrina’s life was changed forever that day. In the community I live in the impact of Adam’s tragic accident was felt broadly.

I spoke to Katrina just last week in relation to this bill and the need to ensure families that do suffer such a tragic loss do get the support they need. It is hard raising the accident with Katrina, and I was really interested in what support she had been provided way back then. She was very keen to talk about her beautiful son Adam, but the sadness of that day never goes away. It was sad to hear that Katrina was provided with no avenues of support back then – no counselling, no compensation, literally nothing. She said she sought her own counselling, something she knew she needed to do. Katrina was pleased to hear that we are discussing WorkSafe and family support, and it should be a priority, but as she said, the loss and love of your loved ones never go away, and she has been a passionate advocate for workplace safety.

The bill contains several amendments that will improve support for families who have been impacted by serious workplace injuries and deaths to help them deal with their trauma and alleviate financial hardship. We need to have immediate financial assistance and systems in place to take away the stress of worrying about loss of income and financial hardship directly related to an incident. The family of those affected are going through enough. Families also need counselling support. Behind every claim under WorkCover is a Victorian who has been injured, is suffering and is trying to navigate a complex and at times confusing system, or a family confronted with the most tragic circumstances of losing a loved one, just like my friend Katrina.

Workers who sustain injuries while performing their jobs are entitled to timely and appropriate compensation, rehabilitation and support, and the claimants and users of the scheme must be treated fairly, respectfully and with dignity and receive high-quality service. The families of these workers are also deeply affected, as loved ones often struggle to cope with not just the physical pain and trauma of the loss or injuries of their loved one but also the emotional and financial uncertainty of its impact on their future and on their wider family. Workplaces are also significantly impacted when fellow workers are injured or tragically killed onsite. We have to ensure that both the employer and the employees are supported and that we have legislation that is fit for purpose and managed by a workplace. Currently workers across the state are faced with long delays in claims being processed, inadequate compensation and far too often a lack of transparency when it comes to their rights. This government has been failing injured workers for far too long. Whether it is a farm worker who sustains an injury lifting heavy equipment, a tradie who falls from a ladder or a factory worker exposed to hazardous chemicals over years of work, these Victorians deserve a system that treats them with dignity, respects their rights and provides the care and support they need to recover and hopefully return to their workplace when possible.

Labor has been overseeing this scheme for over 10 years now, and they have had every opportunity since taking office to address the systemic issues that have led to delays, inefficiencies and financial mismanagement. While the bill does propose some welcome changes to improve the efficiency of the claim process, it does little to tackle the root causes of the ongoing problems within the system. The bill presents several challenges concerning provisions that will have a financial impact on businesses and employees across the state. I do want to touch on the requirement to provide mandatory approved training for a return-to-work coordinator at a cost to the employer. We all agree in this place that we need to get people back to work when they have been injured. There needs to be a really clear pathway, but we also need to make sure that a business can manage what this might look like. The Hanks review found that mandatory training of return-to-work coordinators might impose an unreasonable cost, and while we have some figures suggested in this bill, there is still no in-depth detail. I note the member for Tarneit mentioned that workers already employed will take on the responsibility of training, and he made it sound like just another job and another expectation in their day of work, which in itself raises alarm bells, and there will be another cost imposed on these businesses.

As I said, we absolutely want to get people back to work. Businesses are already doing it tough, are on their knees trying to survive and have been faced with increased premiums and ongoing taxes. The impact of increased premiums has been significant. As the member for Narracan shared in his contribution this morning, he had heard of significant workplace premiums going from, in one example, $30,000 to $60,000, and we have heard of even higher WorkSafe premiums. Businesses have also mentioned across the board in my electorate that they are struggling, and they are concerned about WorkSafe costs. They want to do the right thing, and they want to make sure that they can afford to do that. The member for Euroa also talked to a business that contacted her which had to go on a payment plan for their WorkSafe premium and for their costs, which had increased significantly.

We want to keep businesses. We have to give them more support, not keep increasing the cost of doing business that leads to them shutting or leaving the state to do business elsewhere. Yes, we need this training in place. We need to make sure we can offer these improvements, but we have to make sure it is viable for businesses to do so. The government’s approach to managing the scheme has been characterised by financial mismanagement and lack of transparency. As I have mentioned, I support the sensible reasoned amendment that has been moved by the member for Evelyn, which is that:

… ‘this house refuses to read this bill a second time until the government:

(1) agrees to freeze the average premium rate at 1.8 per cent for 2025–26 to provide certainty to Victorian employers;

(2) consults with interested stakeholders and the public on proposed changes recommended by a WorkSafe review into family supports;

(3) makes available all modelling prepared for the legislative impact assessment for this bill in relation to the additional costs and financial impact the bill will have on employers and the WorkCover scheme;

(4) consults with industry to minimise fees for training for return-to-work coordinators; and

(5) implements measures to prohibit entities responsible for corruption on Big Build and Victorian construction sites from becoming an approved training provider.’

The reasoned amendment is consistent with the publicly stated policy position of the government to impose a freeze on any increases to workplace premiums. These are sensible, common sense amendments that I hope are supported from those on the other side as we need the proper reforms in place to move this bill in the right direction.

Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (18:30): It is with deep respect that I rise to speak in support of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025, because this bill is not just about legislative amendments, it is about people. It is about how we treat people when their world is turned upside down, when their lives change in an instant. No-one expects that an ordinary work day will change everything. No-one plans to get injured at work. You wake up maybe a little tired or maybe thinking ahead to the school pick-up or what is on for dinner, but you make your morning coffee, kiss your kids, partner or pet goodbye and head out the door. You are not thinking about whether you will come home safely, because as governments and workplaces we have rightly put in place measures to prevent accidents or negligence occurring in the first place. We actively work to create safe workplaces, and we have put worker safety at the core of our laws. But sometimes things do go horribly wrong, and when they do, the impact can be immediate and can echo for a lifetime. When that happens, the question we must ask is: what happens next? The answer to that is that we stand with those workers, we stand with their families and we back a system that puts people, not paperwork and not profit, at its heart. That is what Labor governments do. We do not walk past injustice. We do not look away from hard truths. We stop, we listen and we act.

Labor has always stood with workers. It was the Cain Labor government in 1985 that laid the foundations of the modern safety and compensation scheme. That reform was more than just a policy shift; it was a statement of principle. It was a recognition that safety at work is a fundamental right. We have built on that legacy ever since. In 2019 we introduced landmark workplace manslaughter laws to ensure that employers who put profit over lives are held to account.

At that time and in debating that remarkable piece of legislation I spoke in this Parliament about my uncle George Fasolis who died on the Kingfish B oil rig in Bass Strait and the devastating impact that had on our whole family but especially on my Auntie Koula and their young sons Alex and Charlie. I spoke about how in the aftermath of that tragedy there was virtually no support for my auntie and cousins and how my father had the solemn task of driving to Glenroy High to take Alex out of year 7 and to Jacana Primary to take Charlie out of class and to tell them that they had lost their dad. This was in 1982. There was no inquiry. There were no social workers. No-one from the company extended any empathy or support. There was never any healing from that irrevocable loss. Even though I was not yet born, that tragedy and that impact have been a part of my consciousness for as long as I can remember, woven through the experiences of my dad, my auntie and my cousins. We do not always talk about that toll, the invisible weight of a workplace death or injury, and how it can utterly shatter families and how that pain lingers.

I am proud our Labor government have consistently brought these issues into the forefront of our reform agenda. In 2020 we made provisional mental health payments a reality, because we knew that mental injury is just as real and just as painful as physical harm. In 2021 we strengthened protections for workers exposed to deadly silica dust, and we strengthened access to compensation for firefighters and their families. Now in 2025 we take the next step forward, refining a system shaped by the stories of those who have lived through it, backing in the voices of workers and their families.

I would like to particularly acknowledge the members of the Workplace Incidents Consultative Committee, some of which joined us in the gallery earlier today to listen to the debate. This committee has been instrumental in contributing to these reforms to support injured workers and families who have lost a loved one from a workplace death. These are people with lived experiences – people who have somehow in their strength and resolve turned their grief into action to try to improve what happens when the worst happens. Because when someone is hurt at work, they should not have to fight to be believed. They should not feel like a number in a pile of files. They deserve to be met with a system that wraps around them with care, with dignity and with real support.

This bill responds to the findings of the Rozen review, a review that did not mince words. It found systemic failures in how complex claims were mishandled, stories ignored, medical evidence cherrypicked, people harmed not just by the original injury but by the very system meant to help them heal. But perhaps even more devastating was it showed how families and injured workers often felt shut out. People in crisis, grieving, injured, afraid were not just left in pain, they were left in silence, and in that silence uncertainty becomes unbearable. In my electorate of Northcote from time to time we have the opportunity to speak with and try to assist residents who have experienced workplace injuries. One man we met, Terry, told us about his experience with hand-arm vibration syndrome, a condition from years of heavy, repetitive tool use. His hands constantly tingle and go numb. It means he can barely sleep. He finds it hard to play with his grandchildren, to write birthday cards, to steady the cup of coffee he holds each morning. But worse still, he had to battle for years to have the cause of his injury recognised. He told us that the pain was not just in in his arms but in how invisible he felt. This bill says very clearly: your experience matters. Your voice matters. You are seen, you are heard, and we will build a system that reflects that.

One of the most important reforms in this bill is the Code of Claimants’ Rights. It outlines the basic expectations of how injured workers and their families should be treated – with clarity, with compassion, with respect – because dignity should be built into every step of the process. We are ensuring that return-to-work coordinators, so often the bridge between injury and recovery, are properly trained and resourced and supported by their employers. This matters because the role of a coordinator can be make-or-break for someone trying to rebuild their life after an injury. We know that the longer a person is off work, the harder it is to return, and too often employers have treated this role as a box tick. That ends here. We are embedding lived experience into the very structure of WorkSafe itself. WorkCover and OH&S advisory committees will now include people who have been directly impacted by workplace injury and death, because people closest to the pain have the clearest insight into how to make things better, and we are requiring statutory five-year reviews of the scheme to ensure this system never falls into complacency, because reform should not be reactive, it should be proactive, continuous and transparent.

The bill also delivers significant improvements to the way we support families after a workplace fatality, because no family should ever feel abandoned in their grief. We are increasing the weekly pension for dependent children, something that would have meant a great deal to my cousins back in 1982 when they lost their father. We are ensuring that children with disabilities are supported not just to 16 but through to 25. We are introducing grief and loss payments for close family members, not because grief has a price but because it deserves recognition for families experiencing the unimaginable. Support will now include extended counselling services and doubling provisional pension payments for partners from 12 to 26 weeks. We are also closing longstanding gaps. Families who previously were not recognised under the law – siblings, parents, carers who depended on a worker’s income – will now be eligible for lump-sum economic loss payments. We are also building systems that help people rebuild their lives. Return to Work Victoria is a dedicated agency focused on healing, support and pathways forward, whether that is connecting someone with mental health care, training or new employment opportunities. It is about recognising that dignity does not stop with compensation. It includes the right to rebuild your life.

These are not small changes – they are real, human reforms that shift the culture of a system towards care, compassion and practical support. Let us be clear: this side of the house is proud to lead that work and proud to stand with workers, with families and with those who have fought for a better way.

Before I close I want to again acknowledge the extraordinary work of the Workplace Incidents Consultative Committee – their insight, their heartbreak and their clarity have helped shape this reform. This bill carries their fingerprints. Dignity is not a luxury – it is a right, and those on this side of the house will always uphold that right. This is our commitment, this is what we believe in and this is why I commend the bill to the house.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (18:40): I am very happy to rise to speak on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025 and acknowledge the experiences the member for Northcote referred to in her contribution. I like to take a couple of minutes to give my practical point of view on the legislation that is passed in this place and the practical implications that it has on the ground in communities. WorkSafe is something that is dealt with every single day on our family farms and in businesses that we have run and that locals run. This bill speaks to WorkSafe Victoria and compensation systems. We have heard lots of points of view across today – and I know that at this time of the evening everyone is terribly engaged and not at all ready for this to be over – but we have heard many people, particularly on this side, say that the system is broken, and that is absolutely true. We need a fair and sustainable system that supports injured workers without continuing to impose unsustainable costs on Victorian employers. Without those employers we do not have employees. It is as simple as that.

In communities like mine, all businesses and business owners are doing it really tough. We have heard this week in particular about the implications that the drought is having, and we are in drought. You can paint it any way you want, but when we have not had rain, the ground is like concrete, dams are dry and we are having to truck in fodder, feed and hay, we are in drought. And it is going to get worse, particularly if we do not get rain very, very soon. They are doing it tough, and they are the backbone of our region. I have made reference to this already this evening. Our growers, our tradies, our hospitality venues – we are very spoilt for choice with restaurants, bars and clubs, particularly in Mildura – and also our transport operators are doing it really tough. They work long hours, they employ locals and they invest in their communities – all of these businesses do. But many have reached absolute breaking point with their WorkSafe premiums, and they are continuing to climb year after year. We heard the member for Shepparton talk about constituents of hers that have had to go on payment plans. This is not unique to one electorate or another; it is happening everywhere. I have spoken to business owners in Mildura whose premiums have gone up 20, 30, 40 or 50 per cent in some cases, or even more. These are businesses that have never made any major claims, so imagine the cost shock that happens when they open that premium account and it is double what it was the year before. It is absolutely insane.

That money is not just a line on a spreadsheet. It is not just a line on a profit and loss statement. That is the ability to put on another apprentice. That is the ability to give money to local schools, local charities or local sporting clubs, to support other communities . We have to remember that that money that is taken out with the cost shifting that goes on with this state government is money that is taken out of our regional communities that should be part of a circular, self-sustaining community. Those business operators employ locals, they invest and give money to, like I said, sporting clubs and other local charities and they shop at local businesses. You take that money out of there and the entire community breaks. The WorkSafe system is broken, and the pressure on businesses is very, very real.

This bill does make changes – some of them necessary, some of them concerning – which is why we support the reasoned amendment by the member for Evelyn. When we talk about injured workers, in Mildura I think about injured workers on a packing line or a farmhand who develops a chronic back injury. In a previous life I was a myotherapist and a sports trainer, and we used to call it tractor back. It is a very real thing from twisting, turning, watching, reversing and spraying back in those days without reversing cameras and GPS when you actually had to drive a tractor. They are real people and their stories matter.

What we need is actually balance, a system that is financially responsible but still human and a scheme that reduces WorkSafe premiums for responsible businesses. We are not saying that there are not some dodgy operators – there are in every sector and in everything that we talk about – but the ones doing the right things should not be the ones that are paying the price. As an example, our harvest finished just before Easter and was completely incident free. There was not a single safety issue, not a single OH&S issue. Again, the WorkSafe premiums have gone up, but the liability that is then placed on my family member’s farm managers is excruciating when they think about what could happen if something was to go wrong on farm. Thankfully the safe practices are there. We have had an incident-free harvest, but not always, and it does put unnecessary pressure on those that work on farm.

When we talk about the support for return-to-work plans as well, in regional areas like Mildura there are fewer job alternatives that exist. No-one is saying that people should not be trained in these areas – that is great. But again, there needs to be the flexibility, and we need to have a regional lens over this, because in electorates like Mildura we cannot just hop on a tram – we cannot even hop on a passenger train – and be back in a new role within a week or two or whatever it is. Our options are limited, so there needs to be flexibility within these schemes to be able to cater to real-world scenarios on the ground.

We also need to ensure that reforms do not discourage early reporting. This is something that we have seen in the past too, that early reporting has been discouraged, and there has been the masking of injury data, especially in industries where there is fear of being seen as high risk or being seen as a liability, because they know that ultimately, depending on the scenario, even if a farm manager was not there at the time, they could be liable – there is prison time on the table. For family members that are farming and just trying to raise a family and make a living, that is a real concern, so we need to ensure balance. Honestly, if the government is serious about sustainability in this program, it has also got to be serious about fairness and looking after the employers, because again, without employers you do not have workers, you do not have employees. So let us get it right. It is why we are supporting the amendment from the member for Evelyn.

There have got to be ways to give small and medium-sized businesses in the regions some relief. They are desperately in need. I hear business owners and food producers saying all the time, ‘It’s like the government is trying to put us out of business’ – and they are, and I do not disagree with them at all, because that is what it feels like. Apart from everything else that they are trying to deal with – drought, overheads, cost of fertiliser, cost of labour, having to provide housing, all of this stuff – the pressure is real, and this does nothing to take any pressure off our employers that employ those employees.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (18:49): I rise to support the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025. In doing so I just want to begin by acknowledging the Deputy Premier and Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, his office and his team; the department; and all the stakeholders who have been involved in bringing this bill before the house, but particularly the Workplace Incidents Consultative Committee members – some of whom we had here earlier today – Brett Struhs, David Brownlee and Ralph Snider, amongst many others, for their dedicated work and commitment. I just want to also acknowledge the contribution earlier of the member for Northcote – that very heartfelt contribution around the impact of loss of life and workplace safety on her family and its continued impact, which we should all take note of.

It has always only been Labor governments and the Labor movement that have been absolutely, wholeheartedly dedicated to fighting for and protecting the rights of workers, the wages and conditions of workers and the safety of workers, because no worker, no matter the background, level of experience, culture or circumstance, should be mistreated, taken advantage of, injured or worse, killed at work.

As set out in the 1907 Harvester decision that first set a living or family wage, every worker, especially unskilled labour, deserves the right to support a partner and three children – to feed, house and clothe them. Today every worker still has that right to go to work, earn a decent living and come home safe to their parents, their partners, their families, their children or their fur friends. That is why it has always been Labor governments and the Labor movement that have continued the struggle to support working people and working families via advocating for wage increases; the social safety net; unemployment benefits for those who go through those difficult hardship times; Medicare; paid parental leave; superannuation; the national disability insurance scheme; the pharmaceutical benefits scheme; the right-to-disconnect legislation that was recently introduced federally; the right to work from home, which we know the federal opposition were opposed to; industrial manslaughter legislation; wage theft legislation; the recent workplace surveillance inquiry at a state level that we have just tabled this week in Parliament, to which the opposition made a dissenting report; the Transport Accident Commission, established under Labor; and of course, WorkSafe and WorkCover. These are all proudly Labor initiatives at a federal or state level that to this day we must continue fighting for, protecting and solidifying.

With respect to WorkSafe and WorkCover, this bill is all about those continued efforts to reform and modernise the WorkCover scheme to respond to those contemporary challenges, just like all those previous landmark reforms that I mentioned. The WorkCover scheme of course was designed and introduced by the Cain Labor government in 1985, the year that I was born, primarily to support workers with physical injuries. Since its inception and still to this day WorkCover is all about providing support to those Victorian workers when they become injured or require insurance, protection, support and compensation or need workplace claims, worker rehabilitation, return to work pathways and dispute resolution processes.

As set out in the annual report of WorkSafe for 2023–24, WorkSafe received 35,500 new claims, up from 27,600 in 2019–20. Eighteen per cent of those claims relate to mental health injury claims; that is up from 16 per cent in 2022–23. And they supported 26,300 injured workers to return to work over that year. They have provided $3.4 billion in total scheme payments to support injured workers, conducted 50,100 workplace visits – up 13 per cent from 2022–23 – and concluded OH&S prosecutions with an 89 per cent success rate.

However, after 40 years of operation the reality is that we need to continue modernising the scheme to meet contemporary standards and expectations, and this bill delivers on our government’s commitment to implement the recommendations from two separate reviews – the independent review of WorkSafe Victoria’s management of complex worker compensation claims, led by Peter Rozen KC, now Judge Rozen – the Rozen report; and the review of the adequacy of compensation and supports for family members of workers whose death is work related – that is the family support review. The bill acquits the recommendations requiring legislative change which we previously accepted.

Importantly, the bill fulfils and implements the advice – the strong advice, the real life advice – that was provided by our government’s Workplace Incidents Consultative Committee, which is co-chaired by the member for Narre Warren South and people with lived experience. I acknowledge and thank Brett Struhs, the non-government co-chair with lived experience; David Brownlee, another member with lived experience; and Ralph Snider, all of whom have experienced the impact of workplace trauma, death and loss of life in their respective families and have brought that experience here so we can improve things going forward for the future.

This bill contains quite a number of reforms across a number of acts. It will amend the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation Compensation Act 2013, the Accident Compensation Act 1985 and the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, which will improve the experience of injured workers who access the WorkCover scheme; improve the support the scheme provides to family members and dependents of workers whose death is work related; improve operation of the Workplace Injury Commission; streamline administrative arrangements for members of WorkSafe’s board, WorkSafe’s CEO and hearing loss assessors; and correct technical oversights across a number of other bills. But also, in detail, it will introduce lived experience membership criteria for WorkSafe board advisory committees, being the occupational health and safety advisory committee and the WorkCover advisory committee; and improve return-to-work outcomes, requiring employers to provide return-to-work coordinators with the assistance and facilities reasonably necessary for the performance of their function under the act; and ensure they receive the appropriate training.

It will introduce new compensation entitlements and improve support for family members after a work-related death, allowing family members of a deceased worker to receive provisional payments after a death by suicide; increase weekly pension payable to dependent children of deceased workers; extend the duration of provisional person payments for dependent partners from 12 weeks to 26 weeks; and create an entitlement to lump sum payments for economic loss for dependants who are not the partner or a child of a deceased worker. The reforms will create an entitlement to lump sum payments for non-economic loss for close family members of deceased workers; provide access to a broader range of therapy and other support services for families, including counselling and other required supports to help families through such trauma; and introduce a new entitlement to compensation for forensic cleaning where a worker dies at home or at the home of a family member. The bill also improves the operation of the Workplace Injury Commission and streamlines, as I say, quite a number of other technical reforms. When combined, these reforms will help us make WorkSafe and WorkCover better, stronger and more resilient in helping support more injured workers and families now and into the future.

Locally, across my community of Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West, we have had many people over the years dedicate their lives through the labour movement and the union movement to helping support and protect the rights of workers going back almost to the establishment of modern-day Melbourne. But we have also had many people more recently proudly represent hardworking injured local workers, including from Zaparas Lawyers. Peter and Lia Zaparas founded Zaparas Lawyers in 1981 with a genuine spirit of caring and collaboration. As their business grew, so did their family, with their three children, Yianni, Paul and Zoe also going on to eventually join the firm. Forty-plus years later and now home to well over 200 members and workers, Zaparas Lawyers continues to very much support people from all backgrounds with their personal injury and workplace injury cases, including WorkSafe, WorkCover, TAC claims; superannuation and insurance matters; public liability matters; and occupational disease cases including asbestos, silicosis and hearing or sensory losses. And regardless of the circumstances, Zaparas and the team always bring a deep sense of expertise, compassion and commitment to supporting every one of their clients in need of help via a no-win no-fee approach, making legal support accessible for anyone, regardless of the background. It was a real pleasure to recently join Yianni Zaparas for the official opening of their new northern hub office at 57–59 Cooper Street in Epping. It was also a pleasure to be joined by my friend the member for Broadmeadows, Senator Jana Stewart and the member for Thomastown.

These reforms will also continue helping injured and impaired workers across my community of Merri-bek. Since being elected I have been approached by several constituents seeking assistance with their WorkSafe and WorkCover claims or concerns, and one of those is Glenn, a lifetime local resident. He is a previous small business owner who commenced more recently a new career and role across the transport and construction sectors. He approached me raising concern about his case after having experienced increased serious instances of workplace bullying, harassment and aggressive behaviour towards him. His health, his mental health and his wellbeing began to seriously deteriorate through severe stress and anxiety, which were seriously impairing his work capacity. Glenn was subsequently diagnosed with adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood resulting from workplace harassment, bullying and pressure – an extremely concerning diagnosis given his responsibility in driving heavy trucks in the transport and construction sector. Following his diagnosis and subsequent negative response from his employer, Glenn subsequently lodged a workplace claim through WorkCover, which was determined and approved. However, despite the approval Glenn contacted me to raise concerns as he was yet to receive any payment, back payment or support 10 weeks after his claim was approved via his employer as required. I was very pleased to have been able to assist Glenn to rectify that issue upon making representations to the relevant minister, but that is why we are moving this bill, to help improve the lives of injured workers.

Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (18:59): I am proud to follow the hardworking member for Pascoe Vale to speak on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2025. The amendments are aimed at improving the experience of injured workers who access the WorkCover scheme, as well as improving the experience and support for family members and dependants of –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I am required by sessional orders to interrupt the member for Clarinda. He will have the call when the matter returns to the house.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.