Page 5933 - Week 18 - Wednesday, 11 December 1991
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ADJOURNMENT
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Berry: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 1991
[COGNATE BILL:
WORKERS' COMPENSATION
(CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) BILL 1991]
Debate resumed.
MR BERRY: Of course, an amendment to include the termination clause was discussed by the monitoring committee at a number of its meetings. The committee was set up under the Alliance Government, as you might recall, in 1990, and, as I said, comprises a number of representatives across a range of interested parties.
The amendment that has been circulated by Mr Stefaniak has quite a few flaws. It seems to me, from a layman's point of view, that one of those would be from a legal point of view. Most particularly, it falls short of the mark when it comes to the interests of employees, employers and the insurance agencies.
While it mentions termination, it does not explicitly give the power to terminate. The amendment, at the same time, removes other existing explicit powers by deleting clause 12. I do not know why you have attacked clause 12 of the first schedule, because it seems to me that that would remove the right to vary payments by agreement or by arbitration under this ordinance. By taking out that clause, I think you leave a great gap in the existing legislation. I think it is poorly thought out and needs a lot more work. That is why the matter ought to be considered by the monitoring committee.
However, the biggest flaws are the assumptions that it will cut premium costs and speed up the processing of claims and therefore benefit employees and employers. The amendment will, in fact, further penalise the victims. Hit the victim. It is always the worker's fault. The first person that Bill Stefaniak mentioned as being at fault on this
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