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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-31 Daily Xml
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WORKCOVER

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:55): My question again is to the Deputy Premier. Can the minister explain why the government has not sought to re-establish the role of medical panels within the WorkCover dispute resolution process, given the legal moves that have made that key element of the 2008 amendments ineffective?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:55): Again, I thank the honourable member for these questions. This is really good; it is interesting. We are talking about interesting stuff, at least in my opinion. The situation with medical panels: as the honourable member would know, the medical panels were established in 2008. The establishment of medical panels involved not a small amount of controversy, because the medical panel model involved giving the medical panels the right not only to have opinions as to what amount to basically medical matters but also in effect to make decisions about legal matters.

That was a very problematic issue. As the member for MacKillop has mentioned, there was litigation a while ago in the case of Yagubi, which went to the Supreme Court. That meant that the intended original function of the panels was substantially undercut. It is my belief, from information that I have received, that there has been an unwillingness by people to take advantage of the panels prior to that and since.

I make it clear from this side of the house that we are of the view that the panels are not the way forward to resolve medico-legal matters, and in due course we will be putting forward alternatives. I think it is safe to say that panels in their present form have failed to live up to the expectation that was wrapped around them in 2008. There is no point in us saying they have gone really well, because they have not. So, the fact is that will be dealt with; but the panels have not been a success.

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