Written by Condon Associates on 27 June 2012

It was interesting listening to the increasing debate about the proposed changes to the Workers Compensation regime as they are being brought in by the current State Government.  On the radio there was much debate from all the different sides about who would be left out, how fair that was, the ramifications to genuine claims relating to serious injury and so forth.

However of all the debates there were two things that all sides appeared, amazingly, to agree with; firstly that the increasing costs were unsustainable to industry as a whole and two, the major cause of the increasing costs were not actually the claimants but the lawyers that were involved.  What struck me was the repeated reference to lawyers rather than the legal process.

The whole conversation helped focus my attention on what must be an underlying future (read imminent) need for business in this country to address the cost of operating.  As I have said before this doesn’t translate as screw workers, operate unsafely, maintain inadequate records or any other petty prevention.

We need to focus on how we can get things done rather than a logical reason to evidence why not.  We need to look at the cost and analyse what makes it up and then work out what really needs to be spent rather than what we can pay.

If we don’t then all that will be left is digging holes until some can prove that they can do that cheaper as well.