Overview
- Premiums for the state insurer icare will be held at current levels for 18 months under legislation agreed by Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane.
- Regular payments for psychological injury claims will cease after 3.5 years unless a worker meets a 25% whole person impairment threshold, a softer setting than Labor’s proposed 31%.
- The State Chief Psychiatrist will design a new test to replace whole person impairment for assessing permanent psychological injury, with existing arrangements staying in place pending the report.
- The package includes extra funding for return-to-work programs, including retraining, mentoring and specialist case workers.
- Sloane personally brokered the compromise and won over shadow treasurer Damien Tudehope, as business groups pressed for certainty before Christmas and both sides acknowledged longer-term reforms remain unresolved.