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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-27 Daily Xml
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WORKCOVER CORPORATION

Mr HANNA (Mitchell) (15:41): Today is an historic day in South Australian political history. The Labor members of parliament met and the Labor leadership enforced over the backbench its moves to cut payments to injured workers. Never before in the history of South Australia has a Labor government moved to do such a thing of its own free will. I make an exception of the period 1989 to 1993 when there was a hung parliament and, indeed, there were some cuts to workers' benefits forced upon the Labor government at that time. But this time it is different. How appalling, almost sacrilegious, for the Premier to call upon the memory of the Hon. Jack Wright and to suggest that he would be in favour of this legislation! How utterly callous and appalling that is! Jack Wright wanted a non-fault, generous statutory scheme for workers if they were injured at work, and that is what was achieved in the 1986-87 negotiations.

Gradually, the insurance scheme for workers has been watered down, and there has never been compensation for those cuts to workers' benefits. To compare to Victoria and New South Wales is illusory because, of course, in those jurisdictions, workers can sue if the employer has been wrongful. In this case, the Labor backbenchers were not even told of all of the details in the legislation. There is real devil in the detail. For example, the modification of assessment of lump sums for permanent disabilities was just glossed over in the caucus meeting this morning.

The government seems intent on blaming everyone but itself for the shortcomings of WorkCover. The one word that has not been mentioned by the government is management and that is management of the actual WorkCover Corporation, not just the board but the actual employees of the corporation, not to mention the claims agents over the years who have handled the claims. They have fallen short and left workers to suffer.

In my remaining time, I turn to another topic. Adelaide was graced with a visit from the world leader of the Uyghur community, Mrs Rebiya Kadeer, yesterday. I was pleased to host a briefing for parliamentarians in the Old Chamber of Parliament House. Mrs Kadeer is 60, the mother of 11 children. Many of her children are in prison in China. The Uyghurs are people of Turkic origin. They live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China which covers about one-sixth of the area of China. In 1949, that area had only 2 per cent ethnic Chinese, but since then a process of ethnic cleansing has sought to make it Chinese in every way.

First, they came for the land owners and arrested and took away those who owned property. Later, when the Cultural Revolution was going on in China, they came back for the intellectuals—the teachers, writers and so on. Later, in the 1980s, when the one-child policy was being implemented, they came forcibly and arrested pregnant women in the villages and took them to abortion clinics to enforce abortions upon them. Over the past 20 years, demonstrations have led to the arrest of young people—their friends, relatives and so on. Only about 5 per cent survive imprisonment in China. Some of the torture that is perpetrated on prisoners includes organ harvesting whereby prisoners are sedated, if they are lucky, and organs such as their liver or a kidney, or perhaps an eye, are taken out for use in surgery elsewhere.

China is the country that will host the 2008 Olympics, and while I send my absolute best wishes to the athletes who wish to compete, I would say to parliamentarians and other leaders in Australia, if they are going to visit the Olympics, spare a thought for the Uyghur people who have suffered and who seek independence and redress in the face of torture and ethnic cleansing from the Chinese government.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Hear, hear!

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