Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion.
Briefing Paper No. 24/1999 by Roza Lozusic
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- The NSW workers' compensation scheme has a current deficit of
$1.64 billion. The scheme has undergone substantial legislative changes since
its inception due to cyclical deficit problems experienced. Recent reforms took
place in 1998 and prior to that in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Further changes to the
scheme were anticipated in 1999 but these have now been deferred to 2000. In
particular, private underwriting has been deferred to October 2000 and other
legislation for other cost cutting changes is due to be introduced into
Parliament in 2000.
- This paper is an update to an earlier Briefing Paper on
workers' compensation in NSW. It briefly sets out the legal position of
workers' compensation in NSW up until 1998 ( pages 2 - 11). In particular it
looks at the common law position and the statutory position of workers'
compensation in NSW and how the statutory scheme limits common law remedies
available. It also looks at the changes made to the scheme in 1995 and 1996.
- The paper then outlines and summarises the Grellman Report
which was handed down in September 1997 (pages 12 - 16) and the legislative
response to the Grellman Report in 1998 (pages 19 - 23). Finally the paper
looks at the stakeholder views and proposals about the future sustainability of
the scheme, in particular the move to establish breakaway funds in certain
industries (pages 24 - 27), and further changes made to the scheme in 1999 and
proposed changes in 2000 (pages 28 - 31).
