Monday Muses ~ the answer to the rhetorical question really is quite elegant ???

On the 9th May 2022 I wrote "The Standard you walk by is the Stand you accept. I stopped walking." Since then I have been reprimanded for daring to speak the truth at a National Summit, and I have been reminded that there are times when I should keep my ideas and opinions to myself. Truth is I have never really been good at keeping my opinions about what is best for the injured worker community to myself: if that bothers other's that is their issue not mine. Outcomes can only arrive when the floor is open for honest conversations that are both respectful and respected. Outcomes can only arrive when it is remembered that conversations require listening as much as talking- we may not enjoy what others are saying but the right to be heard remains.

It is a very over-used question "How do you eat an elephant?" the answer is "One bite at a time?" I have added a third line "first you have to admit that there is an elephant!" It is not possible to find a resolution to anything unless all the components are out in the open and the issues and concerns are in place for all to see. I realise I am stating the obvious, or the seemingly obvious. For the injured worker community it works right up to the point where those in "officialdom" are unable to answer the question "how many people form the Australian injured worker community?" and as to be expected it falls apart from there.

Last week I asked an industry professional "at what point does someone become an injured worker?" It is a question I have asked many times and in many places. The answer is always the same [and is always incorrect]; "at point of impact/date of injury" A person does not become an injured worker until a claim is lodged and accepted, whilst it is correct that the start of the accepted claim is back dated to the date of injury it is also correct that not every claim is accepted without delay or dispute. Thus it should not surprise anyone that the workers compensation system actually doesn't know how many people form the injured worker community.

I asked the same person "how long is a person with a workplace injury "understood" to be an injured worker?" The industry person guessed "until they are no longer entitled to workers compensation support." I asked the same person "do you consider me an injured worker?" the answer was "yes" I asked "how can that be, I stopped being entitled to workers compensation support on the 30th May 1999?" The response was "everyone knows that you have workplace injuries so you are an injured worker!"

So I asked again, "How big is the injured worker community?

It is important to know or have a reasonable estimation of just how big the injured worker community is.

I asked "who forms the injured worker community?"

Again this is an exceedingly important question. Every person who sustains a workplace injury has an immediate family. the workplace injury is sustained to the entire immediate family, not just to a body part.

I asked "who represents the injured worker community?

At this point the person I was meeting with had a blank look and then said "I'm not sure, maybe their lawyer."

Last week I wrote "Can a rhetorical question be answered ...?"

I said there that I had in my mind answered this question, I also admitted that for the first time ever I was not able to test my theory or concept. It remains just as frustrating for me now as it did when I first realised the answer. I know the person I was meeting with was also frustrated -I am not sure if the person was frustrated with me, or frustrated because she/he didn't know where to take the answer. [most likely it was both]

At first I thought the injured worker community needed a Commissioner: that thought process took me down the line of who would a Commissioner report to? And what changes could happen until the role of Commissioner was defunded. I looked overseas to the Bancroft Institute , I admire the Bancroft Institute, but there wasn't any answers to be found there. I returned to the piles of research and white papers. A part of me already knew the answer because The Marksman kept requiring me to go over and over the challenges.

The answer currently to "Who represents the injured worker community" is "no one represents the injured worker community."

And in that answer is found an answer and a challenge. If a Commissioner is required to report up the line in order to alter the impact of workers compensation upon the most vulnerable members of the injured worker community, then it follows that a Commissioner would require a Minister to report to. -But not a workers compensation Minister, but a stand alone Minister for the Injured Worker Community. A Minister who would be able to acknowledge that indeed there is an elephant.

Now you know why I am unable to test this concept. I am not an elected member of any Parliament, so it is not possible for me to stand on the Floor of any House and ask questions of just why we do not know how large the injured worker community is, nor do we know what societal issues the injured worker community face each and every day, nor am I able to query Safe Work Australia as to why 77% of the costs involved in the Australian workers compensation industry are carried by the injured worker community. -That doesn't mean that I am not able to address Parliament if I am invited to, I have given evidence to Parliamentary investigations in the past, and I suspect I will continue to do so well into the future. One of the most important things to remember when addressing Parliament inquiry is to carry my Dad's Bible with me; the second most important thing to know is that Parliamentary privilege is extended to who ever is invited in to speak: the third thing is to wear my claim number t-shirt and require everyone to address me by my claim number and not my name : the fourth is to know that what I have to say would impact people in ways .... best not go there.

My concerns right now though are the issues I see and read every day: under-payment of income , breaches of confidential information , Bills before Parliament to yet again tighten the legislation and remove even more rights and supports for members of the injured worker community, and the urgent need to push more money into a workers compensation system that keeps failing both the employers and the injured worker community. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that at no time in the history of this current iteration of workers compensation that started here in Australia in the mid 80's that no one has investigated the actual impact of workers compensation on the injured worker

community. As I have said many times and in many places and I have been reprimanded for saying it- the injured worker community is the largest non-recognised community in Australia. At no time during any of the National Censuses has the Australian Bureau of Statistics ever attempted to ask the question "have you ever sustained a workplace injury?" These numbers are now a few years old, however the area covered by these numbers is in truth very small. I have seen spreadsheets of names that total many many many more people than just 25,251.

It is my thought process that has lead me to the conclusion that if we truly want to make the workers compensation system to be workable and to have the required and desired outcomes for both the employers and the injured worker community then we need a Minister for the Injured Worker Community. The injured worker community needs a voice in places that they are not recognised because we truly do need someone to stand and represent each of us. The injured worker community requires a voice that cannot be defunded, and a voice that can ask question and have the questions answered.

I acknowledge that there are Industrial Relations Ministers; their role is to represent the workers compensation authorities and the workers compensation process; they actually cannot represent the injured worker community.

It doesn't mean that they don't want to support various members of the injured worker community, it just means that the outlines of the Ministry prevents them from doing so. I look forward to what you think. Right now I just feel relieved that I can finally tell each of you the conclusions I have reached. For me it is more important that this conversation is started and that for the first time actually invite the injured worker community in, not just for a customer satisfaction survey but for real change and real options and real outcomes that are sustainable and achievable for both employers and the injured worker community.

On this Albert Einstein is correct; all of us need equity outcomes not the rinse and repeat rinse and repeat rinse and repeat that we have now.

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Now it is time to head into the kitchen to prepare dinner. I hope each of you are staying as warm as is possible.

Yours in service

Rosemary