Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

Let me initially deal with the second of the issues, in relation to the states. Concerns have been raised by the opposition about the impact on the viability of state and territory work health and safety and workers' compensation schemes due to the potential exodus of large employers from the scheme. Let me say this: the Productivity Commission inquiry into national workers' compensation and occupational health and safety frameworks specifically noted that any concerns that exiting premium payers would lead to volatility was not supported by the evidence. In addition, what we have is the review commissioned by the Gillard government and led, of course, by Allan Hawke, who was strongly supportive and in fact provided the basis for the actions we are now taking. So, both the Productivity Commission and one of Australia's most distinguished public servants have provided advice over time in this space.

Furthermore, actuarial assessments commissioned by the Productivity Commission concluded that the larger the employer is, the closer the premium is to the true cost of claims and expenses such that the exit of such large employers would be relatively neutral to the state and territory schemes. In the department's assessment and in the advice that we have, the circumstances have not changed since the Productivity Commission report in any significant material way. Against that background, we have the advice of the Productivity Commission, we have the advice of the Gillard government commissioned reviewers and we have the advice of the department. Unlike—and here I turn to the issue of safety—the previous government, which ignored the advice of the states, of the industry and of the unions in relation to safety under the home insulation program, we have listened to the advice of the Productivity Commission, of the reviewers and of the department. That is why I am confident that not only have we learned from their mistakes on the home insulation program—and we are in the process of having to fix and rectify those tragic errors—but we are making real and significant efforts across the whole of government to ensure that safety and structure are protected in the way in which the reviewers and the Productivity Commission envisaged.

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