Western Metropolitan Region
Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (12:44): (301) My constituency question is for the Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Danny Pearson. This year we learned that WorkCover is fundamentally broken because the value of payments outstrips the premiums collected by almost $1 billion, and yet many have been warning this Labor government about this exact catastrophe for years. Indeed in this very Council chamber on 8 June last year former Liberal MP Mr Gordon Rich-Phillips moved motion 776 calling for accountability, oversight and intervention to ensure the financial sustainability of WorkSafe due to the countless annual reports which had revealed it was heading towards bankruptcy. Last week a small manufacturing business located in my electorate, which has been operating for 15 years and provides full-time work for 11 staff, received its annual WorkCover renewal notice, which rose from $31,800 to $57,400 per annum. This is just one of many businesses considering laying off staff or shutting down because they have to choose between paying their own employees or paying for this government’s mistakes. What will be done about this?