Tasmania’s workers’ compensation scheme is under review by WorkCover Board Tasmania, after the state government’s claims bill more than tripled in a decade. Payouts rose from $32.7 million in the 2015 financial year to $143.4 million in 2024, according to Tasmanian Risk Management Fund annual reports. Consultation on the changes closes in September.
ABC News reported the review is running while the government flags 1,700 job cuts across the state service, and while the Labor opposition warns the outcome could make long-term claims harder to win, including claims for psychological injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The scheme covers anyone who suffers a physical or psychosocial injury, or a disease, in the course of their employment, or where work has substantially contributed to the harm. That’s a chippy who comes off a trestle as much as it’s a paramedic.
What the board says it’s looking at
WorkCover Board Tasmania, an independent body, says the review is about keeping the scheme fair and financially sustainable.
“The review comes at a time of increasing complexity across workers’ compensation systems nationally, including growth in psychological injury claims, increasing claim duration and complexity, and evolving workforce structures,” its media release said.
Two of those three phrases are the ones to watch. Claim duration and the psychological injury test are scheme-wide levers, not state-service-only ones.
”Will you guarantee”: the exchange in parliament
In state parliament on Wednesday, Labor leader Josh Willie pressed the treasurer on what was actually on the table.
“Will you guarantee that no injured Tasmanian worker will recover a lower payment, lose coverage, or face a higher barrier to make a claim as a result of your review?” he asked.
Treasurer Eric Abetz didn’t give that guarantee, pointing instead to other states reviewing their own rules.
“Why would you look to lock in a position before you get a full report, and you’ve got the information before you to make a genuine considered decision?” Mr Abetz asked.
“What we want to do is get the best possible protection of our workers while the system is sustainable.”
Mr Abetz said psychosocial injury claims had doubled over the past decade and cost eight times what a physical injury claim costs.
Since 2019, Tasmanian law has automatically presumed PTSD is work-related for the purposes of a compensation claim. Health Minister Bridget Archer would not rule out the government reducing, narrowing or removing the presumptive cover offered to first responders, the ABC reported.
A KPMG report found 28 per cent of Tasmania’s state service claims in the 2024 to 2025 financial year were mental-health related, and 15 per cent of those were PTSD claims. Frontline workers, including police, firefighters and paramedics, accounted for up to 23 per cent of mental health claims, a share the report found appeared to be growing over five years.
Unions say spend it at the front end
Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said cutting compensation was the wrong lever to pull, and that prevention was where the money should go.
“Resourcing workers, supporting workers, preventing bullying and harassment … If we invest in those things, we will go a long way towards lowering the cost of workers’ compensation,” she said.
Parliament also heard a specialist wellbeing unit for Department of Justice staff is to be abolished, with the opposition claiming 200 workers would be affected. Justice Minister Guy Barnett said the change would happen later this year, after a review of wellbeing services.
Ms Munday wasn’t impressed.
“That to me sounds like a government that wants to tick off numbers on a budget paper and say ‘we have got less staff here’, but your costs are going to come out somewhere else,” she said.
“What we worry about is that the cost is going to come out in more injuries, not less.”
The premium loop, and why it bites
Hobart barrister Luke Taylor, who has acted for both employees and employers in workers’ compensation matters, explained how the government’s self-insurance arrangement works through the Tasmanian Risk Management Fund.
“Each year, the money that each agency [department] is paid out of that fund to meet its workers’ compensation exposure is then calculated to produce a premium that department will then pay into the TRMF for the following year,” Mr Taylor said.
Any builder who’s had a claim land on their policy knows that loop. This year’s claims write next year’s premium.
The Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management shows what happens when the loop runs hot. Senate estimates heard DPFEM premiums into the TRMF had risen from $2 million in 2018 to $63 million this year. Earlier this year the ABC reported more than 100 police officers were off work at the time on mental health claims.
“We have done some work around where we think the premium is going to head and we are bracing ourselves for significant increases in [future] years,” Police Commissioner Donna Adams said at the time.
Mr Taylor said benefits for DPFEM workers had changed in several ways in recent years, the PTSD presumption among them.
“The statutory step-downs in their weekly payment rates have been done away with for police who suffered their injury in the course of frontline policing,” he said.
What it means on the tools
A step-down is the point where an injured worker’s weekly payments drop after a set stretch off work. For frontline police injured on the job, per Mr Taylor, that drop has been removed. For everyone else in the scheme, step-downs and claim duration are exactly the sort of settings a sustainability review looks at first.
That matters more to construction than the state-service framing suggests. A crook back or a shoulder from a bad lift doesn’t heal on a fortnightly timetable, and the difference between a claim that pays at full rate and one that steps down is the difference between covering the mortgage and not. Same goes for the psychological injury test: tighten the definition and you tighten it for a leading hand on a job site, not just for a paramedic.
For employers, the pressure runs the other way. Claims experience drives premiums, and Ms Munday’s argument is that stripping wellbeing services and 1,700 heads out of the workforce just moves the cost into the claims column later.
Consultation closes in September. Watch two things when the board reports: whether the PTSD presumption survives in its current form, and whether anything shifts on how long weekly payments run. Those are the settings that decide what happens to you if you don’t get back on the tools next Monday. WorkSafe Tasmania publishes the state’s injury and claims guidance at worksafe.tas.gov.au.
Frequently asked questions
Who does Tasmania’s workers’ compensation scheme cover?
It covers anyone who suffers a physical or psychosocial injury, or a disease, in the course of their employment, or where work has substantially contributed to the harm, from a tradie injured on site to a paramedic or police officer.
Does Tasmania still automatically presume PTSD is work-related?
Since 2019, Tasmanian law has automatically presumed PTSD is work-related for compensation claims. Health Minister Bridget Archer would not rule out the government reducing, narrowing or removing that presumptive cover for first responders.
What is a step-down in workers’ compensation payments?
A step-down is the point where an injured worker’s weekly payments drop after a set stretch off work. Statutory step-downs have already been removed for police injured in frontline policing, according to barrister Luke Taylor.
When does consultation on the Tasmanian review close?
Consultation on WorkCover Board Tasmania’s review of the scheme closes in September.
Sourced from ABC News. Original article.
