Legislative Council Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1) 52 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time WorkCover Corporation WORKCOVER CORPORATION The Hon. R.I. LUCAS Legislative Council WORKCOVER CORPORATION The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:15): I have a supplementary question. Is the minister prepared to provide a copy to interested members of the research conducted in 2001, to which he has referred? Secondly, I understand a similar research project is currently being conducted; is the minister prepared to give an assurance that he will make publicly available the results of that project, which is looking at the link between workers compensation claimants and fatalities? The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY Legislative Council Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management WORKCOVER CORPORATION The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:16): I was not aware that I had referred to any research project in 2001; in fact, I am sure I did not. I just said that there has been overwhelming evidence. Presumably, if the honourable member knows to what he is referring then he probably has a copy of it already and I do not need to provide one. However, at the conference this morning the eminent Welsh physician presented a paper by video link that talked about the link between illness and health generally and the workforce. He made the point that a large proportion of the population—I think the survey showed up to 20 per cent of people at a time—suffered least one form of illness or injury. It could be musculoskeletal, headaches, any of those things, but people did tend to stay at work. It is only in, I think, one per cent of cases where it becomes so debilitating that they cannot work. That applies whether or not there has been a traumatic workplace injury. So there is increasing work being done around the world, including this obviously recent research, and I am happy to see what information is available. I am sure most of this is publicly available on the web. The doctor referred today to some research that had taken place in Norway previously. I am sure there is much research around, as there ought to be. It is important that we investigate this matter and do whatever we can to reduce the incidence of mental illness, if for no other reason than for the benefit of the workers concerned.