An inquiry was formed on 9 May 2025 to inquire into and report on proposed amendments to liability and entitlements for psychological injury in New South Wales.
Reform proposals identified that workplace health and safety and workers compensation laws are neither preventing psychological injuries nor treating those with psychological injuries swiftly.
According to the NSW Government, at present, only 50 per cent of workers with a psychological injury are returning to work within a year compared to 95 per cent of workers with a physical injury.
President of the Law Society of NSW Jennifer Ball acknowledged the workers compensation system is “under pressure” and there is a need for change. However, she says that some of the “proposed changes risk stripping the rights of some of the community’s most vulnerable people, while imposing extra costs on business.”
“There’s no doubt the sustainability of the current scheme needs addressing, but that should not be at the cost of those people who have sustained serious and debilitating psychological injuries on the job,” she says.
One of the proposed amendments is to raise the ‘whole person impairment’ threshold. “The proposed increase of the ‘whole person impairment’ (WPI) threshold to 31 per cent will conceivably exclude nearly all workers with psychological injury from making a claim.
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