Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Hansard source

Ashley is a nurse. She injured her back in 1998 moving a patient. She tried to go back to work and in 2004, again at work, exacerbated the back injury. She has struggled with chronic pain for the last 14 years. Without the support she received under the old workers comp system in New South Wales she would have had to retire, she would have been on the DSP, and people would have given up on her. Unfortunately, now she lives in New South Wales with a Liberal government. Where she is injured, unless she passes the 20 per cent whole person impairment test—which is unlikely—that is it in 12 months time: no medical help and put on the scrapheap. What this means for the 600,000 Australians who get injured is: you cannot trust the New South Wales Liberals to look after you if you get injured at work.

Look at those people opposite—they think it does not happen. Six hundred thousand people get injured, and you cannot trust the Liberals if you are injured at work in New South Wales. What is more, you cannot trust the federal Liberals because they will not rule out doing the same thing nationally. They do not have an IR policy or a workers comp policy and we do not trust them to look after workers. (Time expired)

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