Minister halts premium increase

THE NSW Minister for Work Health and Safety, Sophie Cotsis, has stepped in to save small businesses from being hit with an average 20 per cent insurance premium increase.

Minister Cotsis wrote to icare, the state’s workplace injury insurer, directing it to limit average premium increase to 8 per cent in each of the next three financial years.

Minister Cotsis acknowledged this would still be tough on small businesses, but noted the an average increase was limited to 8 per cent in future years there was a lot more work ahead to put downward pressure on any average increase.

The Minister warned against false hope, saying it would still take years to fix a decade of dysfunction in the state’s injured workers compensation system.

Incoming briefs received by the new government warn that the nominal insurer is so seriously run down it will not regain financial sustainability without significant premium increases.

The briefings make clear that the primary reason for this is the previous government’s refusal to put in place adequate rate increases between 2014 and 2021.

The previous government was