WORKCOVER

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:04): Following the minister's comment about the WorkCover board, now that the government has appointed a number of board members as members of both WorkCover and the Motor Accident Commission, is one option the government is looking at with WorkCover reform to combine the Motor Accident Commission and WorkCover?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:04): I thank the honourable member for the question, and I can honestly say that certainly to my knowledge nobody has turned their minds to that. I have certainly not conversed with my cabinet colleagues about such a thing, and—

Mr Venning: Too busy working out the numbers.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: There has been no conversation about that at all.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Do you want to start playing that game, do you?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That's the game. Can I explain this: the functions of the two boards are quite different—they are quite different. It is true that there are certain similarities between the two, and one of the things that I do think we need to look at is that the way in which the MAC scheme, courtesy of the Minister for Health's reforms, deals with the catastrophically injured is now out of step with what WorkCover does for people who might be placed in a similar difficulty but who are not in that position because of a motor vehicle accident.

The Hon. I.F. Evans: They can buy into the scheme.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: But I am saying there is potentially an anomaly there. Those are things that we have to look at, but the fact of there being a board membership here and a board membership there is completely coincidental.