Tuesday, 1 August 2023

WorkCover premiums

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:51): (331) My adjournment is directed to the Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC in the other place. This government’s WorkSafe system has an industry classification and rate system based on the claims experience of each classified industry. WorkCover premiums are also determined by the relative risk profile for each industry. While the relative risk profile for each industry impacts an individual organisation’s claims history, WorkCover premiums are also impacted by the workplace safety record and safety initiatives of each classified industry.

The action I seek is for the minister to meet with me; interested Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry members; business owners; school leadership teams; not-for-profits and volunteer groups, including the CFA, who are currently having to shake tins to get extra money; and other impacted services to explain why the government has implemented and continues to use a fundamentally broken system where – by its own admission, I might say – even if an individual business or service has not made a single claim, it is adversely impacted, with significant increases to premiums if its competitors have had a lot of claims and/or if there have been a lot of claims in the classification of its industry.