Thursday, 16 November 2023

WorkSafe Victoria

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:03): The chamber will be aware of the developing issue with WorkSafe Victoria. Obviously there is legislation in the other chamber, but the community should understand that the problem with WorkSafe goes back a long way under this government. Changes were made in the period around 2018 which weakened the system, and the system has careered out of control since then. The Finity report, which we obtained through freedom of information after a long, long time – the government having redacted enormous amounts of material ‍– shows a striking decline in the performance of the body. Of course WorkSafe is a body that needs to strike a delicate but important balance. It needs to protect workers and provide them with security in payments and medical support, but it also needs to do so at a rate that does not kill jobs and employers with massive premiums. It needs to be a fair system but a system that is properly run. The state government used to take dividends out of WorkSafe, but that has not occurred in recent years, because it has had to pump money in to prop up WorkSafe. But let me be quite clear here: the insurance funding ratio shown in the Finity report shows the system was completely unsustainable, and it is all this government’s fault. It is its failure – the failure of it to tackle the system to make it fair, to make it sustainable. That is the job of a government.