28/02/2008

News Item

Threat to close Parliament

SPEAKER Jack Snelling threatened to close Parliament yesterday as proposed changes to WorkCover sparked a political brawl.

Five Liberals and one independent MP – Kris Hanna – were warned and ministers had to yell to be heard over constant interjections, with Mr Snelling saying he would "vacate the chair" – meaning the House would be closed – unless they brought themselves under control.

At one stage, Premier Mike Rann provoked uproar when he described Mr Hanna (a former Labor and Greens MP) as "having left more parties than Paris Hilton". The Government came under extreme pressure from the Opposition over the changes to WorkCover which will be introduced today aimed at reducing benefits to injured workers after 13 weeks.

The legislation follows an emergency Caucus meeting yesterday morning which lasted more than an hour to approve the controversial move designed to rein in WorkCover's unfunded liabilities of more than $840 million.

While there was intense debate, only a handful of MPs from Labor's Left faction voted against the changes.

Another motion aimed at seeking further negotiations between Mr Wright and the unions was also comprehensively defeated. Caucus was told by Treasurer Kevin Foley that unless the WorkCover unfunded liabilities were tackled vigorously, the state's AAA credit rating could be at risk. Later, Mr Rann told Parliament the Government was committed to passing legislation through Parliament as soon as possible to make the scheme "fully funded, fair to workers and affordable to business".

He said the Government expected the legislation to be debated in April. Mr Rann said the Bill would make WorkCover in SA the fairest system in the country and believes it will be strongly supported by Labor MPs.

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith taunted the Premier in Parliament by reading out excerpts of speeches Mr Rann had made in 1995 opposing Liberal changes to WorkCover, where he described them as draconian and being part of a vicious and uncaring piece of legislation.

Mr Hamilton-Smith said those changes had only proposed cutting benefits by 15 per cent after 26 weeks while Mr Rann's changes would cut workers' benefits by 20 per cent after 13 weeks.

Outside the House, he said the Government was "in total chaos" on WorkCover. Both Mr Rann and the Treasurer demanded that the Opposition let people know where they stood on the issue of WorkCover reform because the party's industrial relations spokesman Duncan McFetridge had said, only a few weeks ago, that the scheme should be reformed but workers' entitlements should not be cut.

WorkCover chief executive Julia Davison told The Advertiser that much of the debate had been focused on one aspect of the proposed reform package – reducing the period at which payments would be cut from 52 weeks to 13. She said it was important to remember that the scheme would continue to have the most generous weekly payments of all states as well as more generous lump-sum payments.

source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/28/2175016.htm