Quotes attributable to Luke Hilakari, Secretary Victorian Trades Hall Council

This Bill represents the worst of Victorian politics. Injured workers are some of the most vulnerable people in our state, and their elected representatives have colluded to strip them of support.

The deal done between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party takes the Victorian WorkCover scheme from one of the best schemes in the country to one of the worst. Victoria will become one of the worst places in Australia to suffer an injury at work.

This Bill flies in the face of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System. It discriminates against workers presenting with a mental health injury and will exclude many of them from seeking support – further stigmatizing mental health.

For many other injured workers this is a sentence of poverty as they’ll be kicked off the scheme with no further support at 130 weeks.

At no time has the Government said how many injured workers will be targeted by this Bill and it is inconceivable that any politician would pass this legislation without these basic facts.

Premium reductions and freezes were a big reason why the scheme was in financial difficulty. Injured workers should not have to pay the price for Government financial mismanagement. Cutting a deal like this repeats the same mistakes and can only further harm the system.

WorkCover exists to support injured workers to get well and back to work. The reforms made by the Cain Government and Bracks Government are now being undone.

Preventing injury and protecting the rights of injured workers are core values for a Labour Movement.

Despite all the expert advice against passing the Bill, the Labor Party has abandoned their creed of “putting people first.”

It should be unimaginable that a Labor Government would cosy up to the Liberal Party to remove rights from injured workers and that is exactly what has happened today.