2011 WorkCover Review

Welcome

In 2007 the Government of South Australia commissioned an independent review of the South Australian WorkCover Scheme. The Clayton Walsh Review made 65 recommendations which led to the changes to the Scheme made by the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Scheme Review) Amendment Act 2008 (the Amendment Act).

The Amendment Act also included a requirement for the Minister for Industrial Relations to initiate a further independent review in 2011 to consider the impact of the 2008 changes.

On Tuesday 4 January, the Minister announced the appointment of Bill Cossey AM and Chris Latham, to undertake the review of Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Scheme Review) Amendment Act 2008 (the Amendment Act).

Bill Cossey is a highly respected independent consultant with extensive experience as a former senior executive in the South Australian public sector and Chris Latham is a senior partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers with more than 20 years experience in providing advice on the operation of accident compensation schemes both here in Australia and internationally.

The review commenced on 24 January 2011 with the Terms of Reference set out in Schedule 2 of the Amendment Act which requires the independent reviewer to assess:

the impact of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Scheme Review) Amendment Act 2008 (the amending Act) on workers who have suffered compensable disabilities and been affected by the operation of the amending Act; and
the impact of the amending Act on levies paid by employers under Part 5 of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 (principal Act); and
the impact of the amending Act on the sufficiency of the Compensation Fund to meet the liabilities of the WorkCover Corporation of South Australia under the principal Act.

Interested parties were invited to provide written submissions to the review by 4 March 2011. The review team received 34 submissions.

The review team provided the final report to the Minister for Industrial Relations.

On Thursday 23 June 2011 the Minister for Industrial Relations tabled the report in Parliament. The report maybe accessed by the following link:

Review of the Impact of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Scheme Review) Amendment Act 2008 (pdf 595KB)

Those submissions authorised by the authors for publication on this website may be viewed by the following links:

Adelaide Psychological Services (pdf 25KB)
Aged Care Association (pdf 52KB)
AMWU, FSU, TWU, CEPU - joint submission (pdf 110KB)
Australian Industry Group (SA Branch)*
Australian Medical Association (pdf 1891KB)
Australian Rehabilitation Providers Association (pdf 132KB)
Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union – Forestry and Furniture Division (SA) (pdf 48KB)
Employee Ombudsman (pdf 102KB)
Farmers Federation (pdf 132KB)
GIO Insurance Australia (pdf 805KB)
Greek Orthodox Community Services (pdf 111KB)
Individual Submission One** (pdf 205KB)
Law Society of South Australia (pdf 108KB)
Medical Panels (pdf 658KB)
- Attachment One (pdf 126KB)
- Attachment Two (pdf 156KB)
- Attachment Three (pdf 527KB)
Registered Employers Group SA (pdf 64KB)
SA Public Sector (pdf 159KB)
SA Unions (pdf 209KB)
SA Wine Industry (pdf 32KB)
Self Insurers Association (pdf 657KB)
Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association (pdf 24KB)
Work Injured Resource Connection ** (pdf 383KB)
WorkCover Board (pdf 785KB)
- Attachment One (pdf 530KB)
- Attachment Two (pdf 270KB)
- Attachment Three (pdf 35KB)
WorkCover Ombudsman (pdf 57KB)

*Commercially sensitive information has been removed
** Personal details have been omitted.